In Your Shadow
by Tamashi.no.Koe
Summary: Yuuta gets a lucky break as he tries to escape his brother's overshadowing reputation: Matsuno Hikara loves tennis, always says the right thing, and doesn't care about his Aniki. But as he finds out, she, like him, is also running from something.
1. Prologue

**IN YOUR SHADOW**

* * *

_Ch:_ One

* * *

"Hey, Ann." Kamio greeted his friend with a warm smile, softening his usually arrogant and intense expression. Brown bangs flopped over one of his eyes, which stood out against his pale skin.

"Hi, Kamio!" The delighted Ann smiled back. Her short, chin length brown hair was clipped back out of the way, revealing a small, pointed face. "How was practice?"

"The usual," Kamio replied, his racket resting casually on his shoulder. "How was yours?"

"We have a new member," she said, nodding at a spot behind Kamio.

He turned around to see a girl about his age standing a few feet behind him, inspecting her racket.  
"Matsuno!" He waved to her.

She turned her fierce grey eyes on him, and a smile twitched at the ends of her lips. "Kamio."

"You know her?" Ann asked curiously.

"She came to Fudomine last week. She's in my class," he explained. "Here, let me introduce you." He beckoned Ann to Matsuno's side.

"Matsuno Hikara," she said to Ann, without waiting for Kamio. She gave a slight smile that bore all the friendliness of a huge grin.

"And this is Tachibana Ann," Kamio gestured towards Ann.

"Hi! It's really nice to meet you!" she greeted her brightly.

"Hey Kamio, want to go get a hamburger?" One guy standing outside the court yelled.

"Yeah, coming. See you, Ann, Matsuno." He waved goodbye to the girls.

Ann and Hikara packed their rackets silently. Ann looked at her new friend with interest. She was small and on the thin side, with black hair in a style like Ann's except for a shock of white in her bangs. At first glance her grey eyes were cold and formidable like a hawk's, but like her smile, they showed unlimited warmth once you looked closer.

"Have you been learning tennis for a long time? Your game seems to have about three years' experience," Hikara said to her.

"Oh no," Ann answered, quite flattered. "I've only been learning for two years, ever since I came to Fudomine."

"I'm sure I'll learn a lot from you," Hikara said in her quiet voice.

Ann beamed at her. "You're pretty good too," she returned the compliment, even more perky than her usual self. "Have you played long?"

"As long as you have, but my skills reflect my actual experience," Hikara admitted ruefully.

"I don't think so! Your basic skills are really well tuned. Who was your coach? Which school did you go to before Fudomine?"

To Ann's puzzlement, Hikara's voice changed at once to a hard tone which matched her eyes. "If you don't mind, I'd rather not say."

The other girl grew even more curious. "I've probably heard of it, if that's what you're worried about. I'm very familiar with schools that play tennis," she assured Hikara.

"All the more reason not to tell you," Hikara said, walking away. "Goodbye, Ann, I'll see you tomorrow. It was nice meeting you."

Ann stared at her retreating form as she disappeared into the setting sun. Could there be something about her former school that made her not want to talk about it?


	2. Chapter 1

_Ch:_ Two

* * *

_|YUUTA|_

I jerked awake as the harsh sound of my alarm clock brought me back from my dreams. Wondering why my bed was softer than usual, it took me a moment to remember that I had come home for the weekend. Although my school didn't require me to go to tennis practice if I went home, I still made it a rule to get up at the crack of dawn for some early morning training.

Hey, how else was I going to become good enough to beat my brother?

Yawning, I brushed up in the bathroom. Heading down to the kitchen, I smelt the heavenly aura of frying pancakes. Pumpkin flavored too, my favorite. My mouth watered.

"Good morning, Yuuta." A quiet voice tore through my momentary daydream of fresh pancakes.

Oh man. "Oh, it's you, aniki," I mumbled. I wished it had been my mother there, or my sister. My brother wasn't the person I liked to see most in the morning, mostly due to the fact that I thought about how to defeat him twenty four hours a day. And that was only a slight exaggeration.

Syusuke gave me a warm smile, one that held emotion, unlike his usual poker face smile. "I made your favorite pumpkin pancakes."

"I'm not hungry," I told him coldly; though it cost me every ounce of willpower I possessed to say it. "Im going out." I marched to the door, took up my bag and walked out before I could change my mind. I didn't really hate my brother, not after that match with Seigaku, and I wanted those pancakes really, really badly, but I still refused anything he offered on principle, and so...too bad, no pancakes.

My stomach obviously disagreed with my choice, as it growled insistently as I made my way down to the nearest tennis court. In the end I had to give in and get myself some bread at a bakery I passed. I quickly ate it as I approached the street tennis court down the road.

The sun was just peeping out from the horizon, and the neighborhood was still fast asleep. Almost.  
The sound of tennis balls bouncing against the wall greeted me as I arrived at the court, finishing up my breakfast.

I was very surprised that someone had gotten there earlier than me, and was even more astonished when I saw that it was a girl. One girl, practicing alone. When I looked closer I saw that she was using two balls at once, hitting one after another with perfect rhythm.

Piercing grey eyes looked in my direction for a second, and then refocused on the tennis balls. Short black hair with a shock of white at the front swished from side to side as she swung her racket.

Well, no matter. I could practice just the same. Taking out my own racket, I did a few warm ups by hitting a ball against the wall too, although I felt slightly ashamed that I couldnt manage two.

Then I moved on to my main training by returning the ball using Super Rising, fine tuning my movements. Feeling a pair of eyes on me, I started to feel uncomfortable.

The girl gave two last swings and stopped her tow balls, turning her full attention to me.

_What do I do? What do I do? What are you supposed to say to a girl at six in the morning?_

"Excuse me."

I jumped and hastily stopped my own ball. "Yeah," I inquired, struggling to meet her cold, intimidating gaze.

"There are two of us," she stated quietly. _She has a voice like my brother's. But apparently she thinks Im a total idiot._"Does it seem a little silly to be simply doing our own thing?"

"Uh" Her eyes seem to demand my agreement. I shivered despite myself.

Suddenly, she smiled. Small mouth curling upwards, warmth filled her features and coursed through me. I relaxed at once and smiled back easily. First impressions could be deceiving.

"It does. Do you want to practice together?" I asked.

"Sure do. I'm always looking for people who play well," she said, a hint of eagerness in her voice.

Whether she had meant to compliment me or not, the feeling of warmth inside me increased dramatically. I gave her my friendliest grin, and her tiny smile grew a fraction larger.

My mood improved in leaps and bounds as we headed into the court.

_She actually makes me feel good._And, even better, she didn't seem to know or care—she would've said something if she did—that I was the little brother of the tensai of Seigaku. It was like a dream come true.


	3. Chapter 2

_Ch:_ Two

* * *

_|YUUTA|_

I saw the shadow of the wolf in her. With fluid movements carrying the strength of steel, she had great potential.

Which was just as well. I loved a challenge.

Once I saw there the ball was headed, I positioned myself behind it, and slashed at it the moment it bounced upwards, shooting it towards a far corner. She sprang towards it, but missed.

"Super Rising is a powerful weapon,"she said pleasantly. "But very hard to master."

My sense of self-accomplishment rose considerably. _Does she talk like this to everyone?_

"I have got to figure out a way to deal with you," she muttered to herself, getting ready to serve.

Up into the air the ball went, with her crouching right beneath it. As she swung her racket, her whole body lurched forwards, reminding me of some predator pouncing on its prey. The ball seemed to stick to her racket for a long time before detaching itself, but I had not time to think about it as I saw the little yellow bullet speeding towards me.

At first it looked like it would come right at me, but in the middle of its flight the ball swerved to the left, making a 90 degree change in direction. My mind struggled to catch up with my body when my instincts took over and I raced towards the ball._You can actually do this when you serve?_

With a burst of energy I caught up with the ball. There it was—I would be able to reach it with the end of my racket—almost there—

"Oh!" I gasped. I had certainly been able to reach the ball, but it had been so heavy, weighing down like lead, that my racket had simply flown out of my hand.

I grinned at her, impressed. That serve suited her well, steel wrapped in cotton wool with a graceful curve.  
"It's a new move. I haven't completely mastered it yet. Very risky to use at this stage," she told me.

"I didn't know you can actually do that while serving," I admitted. "I thought you only used spin when returning."

"It's possible," she said simply, proving her point by serving again in the same fashion. This time I managed to return it with both hands gripping my racket. Being unfamiliar with the balls flight path, however, I found that I had hit a lob._Oops._

Rushing forward like the wind, she took off into the air, bringing her racket down on the ball. It wasn't very fast. Plus, it had landed almost directly in front of me.

Gripping my racket tightly, I swung at the ball as it bounced up at me. This time I could return it for sure—

"What?" I exclaimed in astonishment. A moment before contact, the ball had veered to the right, evading my racket completely. _So I guess it's not just her serves. This girl really likes working with spin._

"Ok, am I just hallucinating or did that smash involve spin?" I demanded jokingly of the girl.

"It involves spin," she confirmed. "I hit it at an angle and rolled it on the racket. The spin is too weak to affect the flight path of the ball directly during the smash, but once it bounces up and the speed decreases..."

I looked at her questioningly. "If you go around telling people the theory of your moves, someone might—"

"Figure out how to counter it?" she finished for me with a slight smirk. "Can_you_think of a way to deal with it? Now?"

"Well...no, but...maybe later..."

"Time enough for me to win the match," she informed me. "Besides, it's only necessary to think of new moves when people catch onto your old ones."

"And that's good because...?

"It forces you to improve," was the short answer she gave me before we continued the game.

_That sort of makes sense. In a strange sort of way._

The ball moved back and forth between the two courts as the sun rose high into the sky. I didn't notice, I was too absorbed in the game to care. All that mattered was that we kept on playing. We played and played until both our bodies couldn't take it anymore.

Gasping for breath, we staggered towards some benches, exhausted and sore from head to toe.  
I'd never felt better in my life.


	4. Chapter 3

_Ch: _Three

* * *

_|YUUTA|_

"What's the score, anyway?" I asked after we'd had some water.

"I thought you were counting," she panted back.

"Well, I wasn't." I groaned. "We played all morning and we don't even know who won."

"Does it really matter?" She asked.

For a moment, no one said anything. Slowly, my mouth widened into a grin as an idea emerged. "Yes, it does."

She gave me a startled look.

"Yeah, it's really important," I continued. "It's something we've both got to know, so I demand a rematch."  
The logic of that comment evaded me, and I was the one who spoke it, but hey, how else was I supposed to get her to play with me again?

"Don't tell me you're not tired," she told me, sounding slightly bored. "Because you are."

"So are you," I agreed. "So let's play again another time."

Her smile lit up her face like the sun. _I'll take it that she doesn't object to the idea._

"I never got your name," I remarked.

"Matsuno Hikara," she obliged by telling me.

"Fuji Yuuta," I said in return. Instantly I tensed, waiting for her reaction. _She must have heard of aniki. Everyone has._

But Matsuno made no comment, only checked her watch and said that it was almost noon.

Realizing that I was hungry, I suggested, "You want to go and get some lunch?"

"Maybe another time," she declined the offer. "I wish I could, but I promised someone that I'd meet them."

"Oh, ok." I felt very let down. "Until next time then."

"See you," Matsuno gave me a final smile, which cheered me up immensely, and waved goodbye.

|HIKARA|

I thought about Yuuta as I headed home to shower and change. I had to meet Ann soon._He's not as stuck up as some other good players._And, I smiled at the thought, he didn't seem remotely interested in where I came from.

It was them that I realized I didn't know where he came from either. No school, no telephone number, I only had his name. _He's a pretty good player, though. People must have heard of him._

Ann was waiting with another girl in a burger joint. "Matsuno!" she called out.

"Sorry I'm late," I said, sitting down opposite her.

"Don't be, you're not," the other girl said. "I'm Shimoda Kanoko from class, remember?"

"You beat me in that last Math test. You're hard to forget," I replied.

Kanoko grinned modestly.

"Ann," I suddenly thought of something. "Do you know any tennis players called Fuji Yuuta?"

"Fuji Yuuta? You mean Fuji Syusuke's brother?"

"I have no idea."

"If you're talking about a guy with a scar on his forehead, yeah, he's Syusuke's brother."

_So people do know him._ "I played against him this morning."

"Who? Syusuke?" Kanoko asked eagerly.

"No, Yuuta." Kanoko seened disappointed. "He's good," I added.

"Syusuke's a lot better," Ann told me. "He's known as the tensai of Seigaku."

My brow creased into a tiny frown. _Why do they keep going on about his brother?_"What about Yuuta? Is he well known? What school does he go to?"

"Well, he's Syusuke's brother, so I guess some people know him. He goes to this really far away school...St. Rudolph or something."

"You know Yuuta?" Kanoko asked with renewed interest. "So do you know Syusuke? I'm a fan of his, even though hes in our rival school."

_Didn't I just say I don't know anything about Syusuke?_

The subject dropped once I admitted that I had never met Yuuta's famous brother. Pity for him washed over me. _I know how it must be for you, to always be connected to your brother. I know what it's like, when people forget to care about who you are yourself._


	5. Chapter 4

_Ch:_ Four

* * *

_|HIKARA|_

_It's a good thing Seigaku isn't very far away. I'd go to St. Rudolph if I could, but I'd never get back in time for dinner._ I stood panting at the main gates of Seishun Gakun, hoping that I'd been in time. If I couldn't find Yuuta, I would try the next best thing, which was brother. Assuming Seigaku's tennis practice lasted a little longer than my own as Ann had said, the team would be coming out soon.

Sure enough, two boys with the Seigaku regulars' jacket came into view.

"Excuse me," I stepped up to them.

"Nya, whos this?" The boy with red hair looked at me.

"Sorry to trouble you after your difficult training, but I'm looking for Fuji Syusuke," I told them the purpose of my visit.

The redhead puffed out his chest. "Yeah, it is difficult, but well survive long enough to help you. Fuji should be coming along soon."

"According to statistics," the other guy with spiky black hair and square glasses spoke up. "Fuji has 198 fan girls in Seigaku alone. The chance you stand as someone from outside school is very low."

"I'm sorry, I haven't quite the mind for statistics. Would you mind repeating that in English?" I said pleasantly.

"It's quite easy, really, you just have to practice more. What I'm trying to say it that competition inside school is big enough, so you don't really stand a chance of catching his attention this way," the boy explained.

"No," the redhead protested. "She's cute enough."

_What? They think I'm—Oh for goodness sake!_ "Actually, I'd only like to see him because-"

"Because he's good at tennis and good looking? 97% of them say that," the dark haired guy cut in.

_The numbers have gone to his head. He needs help._ "From my experience, that is actually true, but I'm afraid I'm one of the remaining 3%." I said as apologetically as I could. "I want to speak to him about his brother, Yuuta."

"Nya, that won't work. Lots of other girls have tried that one," the first boy shook his head.

_These people are hopeless._ "I'm sorry, I just want to find out when Yuuta's next match is. Perhaps one of you would be willing to help?"

"Tomorrow at nine thirty, the usual tennis courts near the woods," the guy with glasses said without missing a beat.

I stared at him. "That was quick."

"You're looking at the walking computer of Seigaku, can't you tell?" the redhead joked.

"I usually avoid stating the obvious,' I smiled at them for the first time.

The redhead's grin stretched from ear to ear. Even the dark haired guy's lips curled upwards readily. I owed my smile a lot.

"Thank you so much for your help. I'll be going now," I said before I turned and left.

"Nya, she really wanted to know about Yuuta? That's weird." I heard them talking.

_Not as weird as you may think._

"This is bad, she's messing up my statistics and analysis of the female mind."

I rolled my eyes. _This one's a hopeless case._

_I wonder what Syusuke's like?_ I couldn't help being curious. But it didn't matter. Tomorrow I'd go to the tennis courts. Tomorrow, I'd find Yuuta.

_|YUUTA|_

"Hello? Aniki?" I said into the phone.

"Yuuta! What's going on? You usually don't call home." Syusuke's surprised and delighted tone made me feel slightly guilty. _Is it his life mission, to send me on guilt trips?_

"Uh, yeah, well, I just wanted to ask whether you know any girl tennis players."

"I'm sure there are lots of cure girls at St. Rudolph," my brother mistook my meaning completely. All previous guilt vanished while I wondered how Syusuke could smirk with his voice the way he did.

"No, thats not what I mean!" I hated my own cheeks for burning. "How could you—ok, do you know anyone called Matsuno? Matsuno Hikara?"

I sighed when I found that Syusuke didn't know anyone by that name, just as I had sighed when I realized that no one in St. Rudolph knew her.

"But I'm not familiar with girl players. Why don't you come home and ask the others at Seigaku? I'm sure Inui would know. If you want I can get mom to bake a pumpkin pie and we can have dinner together..." he was at it again.

"I'd loathe that with a passion," I mumbled to myself. "Aniki, I've got fitness practice, I've got to go."

"Oh. Good luck in your match tomorrow. I'll come and watch—"

I gave the phone an exasperated look, said goodbye into it and hastily hung up. I'd have to think of another way to find Matsuno.


	6. Chapter 5

_Ch:_ Five

* * *

_|HIKARA|_

"Yuuta, where are you?" I mumbled to myself, looking in every possible direction for the St. Rudolph regulars. It was almost nine thirty, and the area around the tennis courts was packed with people. Multi-coloured jackets and bags obscured my view and unlike most tennis players, I wasn't very tall.

"Just leave me alone, ok?" A loud voice echoed from somewhere to my right, very familiar to my ears. For a split second the crowd parted, revealing a group of people wearing the same brown and white uniforms, and I caught a glimpse of angry brown eyes and a cross like a scar.

Bingo.

Maneuvering my way through the dozens of players and fans, I went in the general direction of where I'd last seen Yuuta, until I broke free of the crowd and wound up right behind him.

"Aniki," he was saying, sounding thoroughly exasperated.

I tapped him on the shoulder.

_|YUUTA|_

Feeling a light hand on my arm, I abandoned the impossible task of getting my brother to leave me alone, turned around and met a pair of bright grey eyes.

"Matsuno!" I exclaimed, delighted and surprised. "How'd you know I'd be here?"

"He told me," she nodded towards Inui, one of the Seigaku regulars accompanying aniki. "I went to Seigaku to ask. I really wanted to go find you at St. Rudolph, but I'd never have gotten there in time."

"Eh? How'd you know I'd be playing in the first place? I don't recall telling you that I was a regular."

Again, a twitch of her lips made the day seem brighter. "I didn't know. I just assumed you were, after playing that match with you."

_Does she ever say anything that_ doesn't _make people feel good about themselves?_

"Saa, is this your friend?" Too bad my aniki had just burst my bubble. Would Matsuno still want to be friends with him, after meeting my brother? I had known too many girls who had fallen for the tennis tensai at first sight.

I looked on as Matsuno returned Syusuke's smile—which for once held emotion—with a heartwarming one of her own. "Yes, you could say that. I met Yuuta at the street tennis court a few days ago. I just really wonder why he didn't mention you."

It was as though flames had burst out from deep inside. Well drilled muscles clenched my fists. Of course. She was a girl, and like all girls, she found my brother irresistible.

"So, Yuuta, who're you beating today?" Matsuno roused me from my thoughts.

"Someone called Jiroh." If she noticed the slight frostiness in my tone, she didn't mention it. "Will you be watching?" I'd assumed that she'd come to see me play, but a flicker of doubt crossed my mind as I eyed the smiling youth beside me. Could there be another reason?

|HIKARA|

Yuuta's match was about to start. I fixed her eyes on him, standing besides the other players from St. Rudolph and Seigaku.

"Don't let him get near the net," I'd told him a few minutes before. "He's not a very dangerous player if he stays near the baseline." Yuuta had looked at me questioningly, but had been ushered into the court before he could he could ask questions.

A very sleepy guy with tousled hair the shade of rust entered the court, yawning like he'd just woken up, which as for as I knew, was probably the case. Yuuta raised his eyebrows apprehensively at his opponent, clearly wondering if the guy had wandered in by mistake.

_Don't be taken in by his sleepy manner, Yuuta. He's not easy to deal with when he wakes up,_ I warned him silently, watching him prepare to serve.

"Some attitude! This guy just isn't taking the match seriously! At least he could wake up for it," the red haired boy from the day before burst out angrily.

"You'd better hope he stays this way, Eiji, if you're rooting for Fuji's little brother," the guy with square glasses said darkly.

"But then what would be the point?" I cut in, turning all their heads towards me. "What would be the point of the match if no ones playing seriously?"

"She's right, a deep voice sounded to my right. Giving each match your best is a way of respecting our opponents."

"Yes, Captain!"

_These people need to get personalities._

The conversation paused as Yuuta hit the ball with a powerful serve. Jiroh returned it easily and made a dash for the net. With Super Rising on his side, Yuuta should have been able to return the ball before Jiroh reached the net. But much to my chargin, Yuuta only struck the ball back with a regular move.

My well trained eyes saw how the ball landed near Jiroh's feet, how he seemed to lose his balance and fall with a bump—and how the ball sailed over the net.


	7. Chapter 6

_Ch:_ Six

* * *

_|HIKARA|_

I had absolutely no idea what would come out of my mouth in the unlikely event that I opened it, so opted for just keeping my lips clamped shut.

"What...what exactly happened?" Yuuta mumbled, exiting the court dazedly.

"Er..." Seigaku and St. Rudolph regulars alike united in their attempt not to meet his eye.

_The score board makes things kind of plain, to put it mildly._

"On second thought," he said through clenched teeth. "Don't tell me. I don't want to know."

_Since you are currently devastated, confused and basically ready to snap the neck of anyone who rubs your face in it, I'm not going to say anything._

Keeping quiet had been a wise move.

_|YUUTA|_

"I knew you'd be here."

Matsuno hopped lightly off the ledge she'd been sitting on. "I knew I'd be here too," she said wryly.

"Since you seem like the sort of person who doubles their training sessions in hopes of improving after their last match yielded...unexpected results."

I laughed at her choice of words. There was no way even she could make my defeat sound good this time; being able to reduce it to a neutral statement was already something to be applauded. "Then I suppose you also know that I like to have another match immediately after receiving my unexpected results."

Matsuno plucked a racket out of her bag. "I guess so, if you're game for a lot more unexpectedness..." For the first time, there was a teasing twinkle in her sharp eyes that definitely hadn't been there before.

"Uh..." I wondered at her being out of character.

The smile, wider and easier than I'd ever seen it, should have been even more alarming. Contrary to that particular assumption, all it did was reassure me that somehow, she had just begun to act naturally. Which made sense. No one was _always _complimentary.

"It's called sarcasm, Yuuta," she confirmed. "Though, yes, you really do strike me as the type that has a liking for adventure," she added as an afterthought.

We moved onto a court. "But really, Matsuno, if you're ready to be open with me, you can stop making such an effort to make me feel great about myself all the time."

"Oh well, in that case...I'll rephrase that as, you really strike me as the type that goes out of his way to look for trouble."

And she wore a perfectly contented smile all through the thirty second interval we spent staring at each other.

"Actually, Matsuno, scratch that last."

_|HIKARA|_

I was perfectly aware of having used more irony on Yuuta within the last two minutes than I had on anyone else for a good part of the last two years. It frankly puzzled me, the way the words had just slipped out. On the other had, it was that sense of ease that convinced me of it being fine.

Besides, he was one of those people who weren't likely to think up a smart comeback in time.

Tossing a ball up, I readied myself for my signature serve.

"Ah, Hikara. Ore-sama has not seen you for some time."

Both my racket and the ball hit the ground. "Keigo!"

And then—

"Oops."

Quickly, I turned towards Yuuta, only to find him already staring from me to Atobe and back again. _Guess it's too late to pretend that I don't know him._ By 'him' I meant the silver-haired newcomer, of course. God forbid that I should ever have to pretend not to know Yuuta.

"Ore-sama made a mistake then, when he assumed that Hikara meant it as a joke when she announced her departure from Hyotei," Atobe mused, drawing all eyes to him. As usual.

_There goes my plan of saying that we are family friends who hate each other._ I waited helplessly for Yuuta's reaction, resigned to the reality that now everything was out in the open.

I was actually slightly disappointed in a way when he simply said, "He calls you Hikara?" with an eyebrow cocked.

"Listen, Keigo," I muttered hurriedly, now that there was a chance of salvaging the situation. "We" I gestured at Yuuta and myself "are having a match. Do you mind?"

_Even if I don't loathe you with every particle of my mind now, I'll still hold it against you if you completely blow my cover, you hear?_

Ah Atobe contemplated Yuuta down his nose. "Ore-sama thinks he will personally play the match against you, Hikara, a would-be regular of Hyotei's girls' tennis team."

Apparently, he hadn't heard, and had made it his business to ruin my life. Or at least, a large part of my past hard work.

"This person," he continued, waving a hand at a very irritated Yuuta. "He is not an opponent of appropriate standard. Ore-sama advises you not to waste your time, Hikara."

"Atobe!"

_|YUUTA|_

Quite contradictory to what anyone else on the scene would've thought, I wasn't the one to lash out. I was temporarily one of the bystanders in shock.

Once again I was forcibly reminded of aniki, as the Matsuno I knew melted away. The eyes I saw, I could have sworn were my brothers, except that these were grey and had a much, _much_ larger resemblance to iron molded into orbs.

In the time it had taken me to decide on these facts, she still hadn't done anything, besides snap his name. But Atobe's famous smirk had vanished, replaced by a very gaunt, sullen expression.

The two seemed to be engaged in a raging battle of staring.

"Perhaps," Atobe faced me slowly.

Ready with another assault of snide comments, I concluded.

"Perhaps ore-sama was mistaken again. Hikara knows to choose her opponents wisely."

And to my utter astonishment and perplexity, he inclined his head a tiny fraction in my direction before giving Matsuno a stiff nod. Again, it looked as though volumes were spoken between them through their gazes only.

"Thank you for having that confidence in me, Keigo," she said simply. "Yuuta, sorry about the interruption. Let's continue."

"Er, right," I mumbled, quite at a loss.

This time, our game was a lot harder to concentrate on. Matsuno grumbled about my consistent carelessness.

I couldn't really help it, though.

He had just been made to give something that was as close as he would ever get to an apology, but the next time I'd chanced a glance at Atobe, his smirk was in place like it had never been gone.


	8. Chapter 7

_Ch:_ Seven

* * *

|YUUTA|

It wasn't every day I met someone on first name terms with Atobe Keigo, Hyotei's renowned captain. "So you used to go to Hyotei, Matsuno? No wonder your tennis is so good!"

"Yuuta."

"But why did you leave, then? I mean, once you got to be a second year, you really could've become a regular, like Atobe said just now." It was extremely hard to understand why anyone with such potential would willingly miss out on practicing side by side with the likes of that Jiroh character I'd recently played against. Barring that the very thought of the guy made me want to hit someone, either him or me, I could grudgingly admit that he was beyond your average player. "Wow, I can't imagine how good you might've gotten, if you'd stayed. You would've gotten a lot of help, since you seem to be familiar with Atobe."

I remembered something she'd said earlier. "Don't let him get near the net. He's not a very dangerous player if he stays near the baseline." "Oh, so that's why you know so much about those Hyotei regulars! Gosh, if I'd known you used to actually go there…"

"Yuuta."

"But what's with you and Atobe anyway? I shouldn't think everyone in the same school as him refers to him as 'Keigo'. How come—"

"YUUTA!"

|HIKARA|

"Yuuta," I repeated, silencing him at once. Sputtering incoherently, I fixed him with the most menacing glare I could muster, having anger enough to override the guilt of having left him dumbstruck at the first real outburst I'd had since my days of dealing with Atobe full time.

Eventually, though, there was guilt enough to crumple my fierce urge to throw something. Out of sheer frustrated helplessness I slumped against a nearby bench, sighing at the panic that was making Yuuta visibly twitch.

"I didn't mean that."

He made no attempt to answer, except by cowering all the more and under my gaze.

"Yuuta, you know I didn't mean it to sound like that."

Still nothing.

"For Heaven's sake, talk to me!" Ok, shouting won't get me anywhere. "I'm sorry. you know I'm sorry. But could you just—what does it even matter anyway?" It had been a long time since I'd last been at such a loss for words. Arrogant, self-deceiving buchous I could deal with. But to have someone absolutely terrified of me was a completely different matter.

Seeing as prolonged staring wasn't going to work, I picked myself up and walked till I was directly in front of him. "Yuuta," I tried to say as evenly as possible. Yet the hurt, bewildered look he had on did not fade. If anything, it intensified. "Yuuta, I apologize for yelling at you like that. I was being unreasonable, I know."

Finally, the boy started to come round. "It's fine, Matsuno. I just don't really understand why…"

"Why I got so worked up?" I smiled weakly. "One of the reasons why I never said anything was because I knew people would ask."

"Oh, you don't have to, if it bothers you—"

"Don't worry about it. I knew you'd get curious some time or another." Leading him back to the bench, I began to tell him what I'd kept from even Ann.

"I was from Hyotei Gakun, Yuuta. In fact, I was still there a little over two weeks ago. I left because—because people were talking in the exact same way you were when you found out about that."

|YUUTA|

A number of different theories had gone through my head. This hadn't been one of them. "You left because people admired you?"

"No," she said impatiently; irritated, perhaps, by my incredulity. "Because they didn't. You heard yourself. 'You used to go to Hyotei. No wonder your tennis is so good.' It was my school people noticed, not me. I thought you of all people would understand that."

"Uh, why would that be?"

"You know whose shadow you're living in, Yuuta. You know."

Shadow…? "Hey!" I exclaimed defensively. "Why are you bringing aniki into this?"

"Because that's the only way I can get my point across. He's a tensai. You're his little brother—"

"Don't call me that!" I couldn't help but raise my voice instinctively.

"See/" Her voice, on the other hand, grew steadily lower. "See how you react? Think about that, Yuuta. Think about going around being called 'that Hyotei tennis player'."

She had a point. "Well," I mumbled sheepishly. "There's still nothing to be ashamed about. I'm sure you tried your best, even with all the help…"

"I wasn't helped," Matsuno hissed viciously.

I scooted away from her on the bench. The expression she had on how would normally have scared me senseless. No one could say I'd had an easy life. But the bitterness that contorted my friend's face, making her almost unrecognizable, was well beyond anything I'd ever seen on someone my own age. Not this much resentment. Never.

Perhaps Matsuno herself didn't know.

"Why do people always assume that just because I came from a famous tennis school, I must have gotten wonderful support and training from it?" she went on, her words nothing more than a fierce whisper. "You don't know why Hyotei regulars put so much into their practice and perform so well, do you?"

Wrenching up her sleeve, she trust her arm at me. "This!" she snarled, revealing the bruises, the bruises and cuts of all shapes and sizes.

I recoiled, horrified.

"This is the motivation that makes them pour their whole life into a sport! To avoid this!" She jerked her sleeve back down, leaning forwards onto her thighs which—was I imagining things?—also showed the marks of a rough living, though they were fainter. "No one works that hard for petty reasons, Yuuta."

I said nothing. My mind was at a blank.


	9. Chapter 8

_Ch: _Eight

* * *

|YUUTA|

"Try to guess, Yuuta," aniki said enthusiastically.

I felt my eyes look heavenward on their own accord. _I ask one simple question and this is what happens._ It seemed that the purpose my brother's existence was purely to make mine a lot more difficult than was necessary. All I had done was make a casual inquiry about Matsuno's school, and now I was stuck playing guessing games.

"Aniki, _just tell me_."

"Saa, this is going to be fun! Come on, guess, Yuuta."

And he said it like he really meant it. Which he did, I figured. Making it all the more disturbing, but let's not even go there.

I heaved a huge sigh and decided to give way. It so happened that I really did want to get some answers, and aniki was the only one who could give them in the immediate future, since I hadn't had the sense to ask Matsuno about her present school, even after our detailed talk about her past one.

It was hopeless. Out of all the middle schools in Tokyo, how was I supposed to come up with the one she went to by randomly guessing? I only knew that it wasn't Hyotei or something similar, given that she hated unearned or irrelevant attention.

More likely than not, she had enrolled some place that was famous for being terrible at tennis, just so that no one in their right minds would give credit to her school instead of her, in case of any success.

_Come to think of it…_

"Fudomine," I said suddenly, startling aniki slightly so that his eyes flickered open for a split second. I figured that he had anticipated more resistance.

"Ne, Yuuta, how did you know?"

"Well, today when we were playing tennis she…" I began. "Actually, never mind."

"Saa? Yuuta, what is it? Yuuta, where are you going? Yuuta?"

Past experience told me that staying to argue the matter would only result in me being overpowered by a strong desire to pull out all my hair. Which I'd successfully avoided doing so far, but every attempt to reason with my brother brought me closer, I was sure. So, flatly ignoring him, I bounded up the stairs to my own bedroom, and directed my train of thought to more interesting than an obsessive aniki. I mean, it's natural to be curious about the life of people who don't really live with you, but to dig up _every single detail_ with dogged determination?

That is just not normal.

Anyway.

_Fudomine. _I smiled. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Its boys' tennis team had literally been built from scratch, without even a proper coach, as opposed to Hyotei, which was a traditionally superior school, in terms of tennis. Yes, the reasoning was perfectly simple.

Hyotei… My smile melted slowly into a frown. Matsuno didn't strike me as the type that lied to impress, but to believe that beatings were the only thing that kept said school's tennis team going would be just a little too gullible, even for me.

And trust me, I am not the sharpest person around, seeing as I'd gone and idolised aniki for the first few years of my life.

_Anyway._

I felt certain that if someone like Atobe was even brushed by someone else's pinkie, he would sue, and not decide to join a tennis club and end up proud of it. And I was sure that someone like the Jiroh person I'd fought earlier on would've just slept through the punches.

But she had not lied. She would not lie. Not to me. And the wounds had been very, very much real.

_What…?_

|HIKARA|

I headed down the road to the tennis courts before the crack of dawn as usual.

Reactions on hearing that I did that came in two main groups. Two weeks ago, the majority of people commented on how hard working Hyotei students were. You will probably sympathise with me when I say that after a while I stopped mentioning these early morning training sessions. Now, being in Fudomine, most responses come in various forms of "Oh, ok", with the occasional person commending me vaguely about how disciplined I am, getting up so early every day.

Which is flattering and all, but is entirely misleading.

Since I only chose to go before sunup because I couldn't stand crowded courts while I practised.

A dim light glowed in the distance as I stepped up to the familiar wall. Perhaps it really was a little too dark; I bumped into a nearby handlebar on my way there, wincing as I felt the smarting pain on my hip. Lifting my shirt slightly, I gingerly touched the spot.

Yes, they were still there; the blue and black leftovers from life as a first year. Old ones, inflicted by knuckles and tips of shoes; newer ones, which I'd gotten from rough practice.

And the ones which I couldn't quite classify as old or new, the ones which had come from a long way back, yet had been kept fresh by my own clumsiness or whatnot during training.

I traced a scar with my finger thoughtfully, wishing that Yuuta was around. I probably owed him a full explanation, after last Saturday, lest he went around thinking that Hyotei was infested by maniacs who walked around hitting non-tennis players at random.

Though I doubted that he would fully believe my story. It sounded like something out of a novel, and whatever you say about me, my life is no fiction piece that you find on the Internet or anything.

Seeing as there was no immediate action I could take to deal with whatever wild imaginary scenarios Yuuta had thought up, I picked up my racket and started warming up instead.

I'd explain to Yuuta, when I got the chance.

|YUUTA|

Monday. Afternoon practice.

I got the shock of my life when Mizuki told me that she was in my year. Sakai Sonoko looked so much more mature than the other second year girls I'd seen so far. It probably had something to do with the way she wore her hair…among other things.

But at least it explained why she chose to stand nearby and watch _me_ of all people during tennis practice.

It wasn't very comfortable. Her smile somehow reminded me a little of aniki. Who, you might have caught on, wasn't very welcome at my training, if I could say anything about the matter.

"Hmm…" Mizuki twirled his hair around his finger absentmindedly, suggesting that he had come up with an idea. I had a slight inkling that it would involve me.

Seeing as he was staring at me and smiling eerily and all.

I quickly scooted away to do some rallying with Atsushi. Mizuki getting an idea was almost just as disastrous as my brother getting one. Except I bore my manager's torture schemes better, mainly because they only involved getting myself into embarrassing situations that made me want to shoot myself, as opposed to aniki's ideas which also involved getting into embarrassing situations that called for suicide, only his plans included spending time with _him_. And by now you should probably have noticed that I don't really like doing that.

Rallying, however, couldn't protect me forever, as Atsushi wasn't Matsuno and therefore wasn't as interested in three or four hour long games. Eventually, practice had to end, and the time had come for me to steel myself to walk by Sakai on my way out of the courts..

And don't even _think _about rolling any eyes and commenting on my unnecessary exaggeration.

Just don't.

"Hi, Fuji," she had to shock me by saying, a big smile on her face.

"Er…" came my smooth and intelligent answer. "Hi."

_And I thought just passing by was bad. _

"I watched you practice," Sakai said happily. "I'm really glad that our senpais are having to take second years seriously."

I forced myself to look her in the eyes, which I couldn't decided whether they were blue or grey. Black, wavy hair, dark brown highlights. There were physical similarities, of course, but it was the way she spoke that reminded me of Matsuno.

"I'm glad about that too," I grinned despite myself, surprised at how natural that had sounded.

"I only got interested in tennis very recently, but I decided to come and see how you guys train…"

It seems kind of pointless now to relate our whole conversation. I couldn't really remember anything prominent about it, for one thing. And that was prominent in itself. It was like how I and Matsuno played tennis. No one had to equip or prepare us for it. It just happened.

I do recall us being in a café at some point, though. It would normally have been awkward for me, sitting there with a girl I'd only just met. Only, well…

"Do you think maybe we could get together and play tennis sometimes? I mean, training at school seems nice and all, from what I've seen, but I'd just like to get out there and actually _play_, not swing rackets in air for practice or…"

"I know exactly what you mean," I had said with emphasis. "That's a great idea. I think you live kind of near me, from what you've said…why don't we do something this weekend? I know this court we could use…"

_Matsuno. _

"Oh, and I've got a friend you might like to meet."

Sakai grinned and nodded eagerly.

Things were going so smoothly.

_So_ smoothly.


	10. Chapter 9

_Ch:_ Nine

* * *

|HIKARA|

"Keigo?" I said into the phone, plopping down onto my couch with a sigh.

"Ah, Hikara. To what or who does ore-sama owe the pleasure of receiving this call?"

"Keigo, could I just…come over to play tennis or something after dinner?"

For a moment, there was silence. I hadn't been to Atobe's house since I'd left Hyotei. And even before I'd left, I'd never really been in the habit of initiating these visits. Sure enough…

"Is there something wrong, Hikara?"

Somehow, his voice always lost a little of its arrogance when he got serious. Which was good, of course, since it made our conversations more pleasant. It just took a bit of time to get used to it.

"Well…my parents are in Italy…"

"Then of course you must dine with ore-sama tonight," Atobe said quickly, making me smile. "Ore-sama will send the car over, and after supper, we shall play tennis."

"Thanks, Keigo," I said gratefully. True, Atobe thought that the world existed to worship him, but he rarely failed to understand…when he wanted to. My big, silent home suddenly seemed a little less empty.

"… You seldom express depression about your parents' business trips, Hikara. Nor do you thank ore-sama with such frankness, for fear of inflating ore-sama's ego."

And he said it like it made _perfect sense_ to him.

I literally took the phone away from my head and gave it a good long stare, before replacing it. "Glad you know you have a big head," I said forcefully, choosing to ignore his first statement.

At first, I thought that he was simply taking a few seconds to sulk over my overly blunt comment. But then I remembered that when he felt insulted, Atobe Keigo didn't just take a few seconds to sulk. No, he slapped you with either a lawsuit or some self-glorifying declaration that made you _wish_ you'd been landed with the lawsuit instead. Or, if he wanted to remain on speaking terms with you, as in my case, he at least put up a vigorous and completely pointless argument.

Obviously, any of the above had yet to happen.

"… Ore-sama will have the guest bedroom prepared," Atobe said finally, before hanging up.

I gave another sigh, easing myself more comfortably onto the couch and tossing the phone away, keeping one ear open for the familiar sound of Atobe's black Mustang.

_Should have known he'd notice_. The thing about Atobe was that he actually noticed a lot more about you than you generally thought he did. At times he could read you like a book, it seemed. And he didn't even have to put his hand up to his face to do it. You could not lie to him, without him finding out.

Let there be no misunderstandings; my parents _were_ in Europe. And so, while that fact was totally irrelevant to why I'd suddenly had this crazy urge to ask for Atobe's company, it was the truth. Or at least, part of the truth.

I'd tried not to make a big fuss of it, that afternoon at the tennis courts. Yuuta bringing her to our little tennis sessions, I mean. The talent pool in girls' tennis was a lot smaller than in the boys', so if he wanted to give one of my fellow females a bit of extra coaching, I wasn't going to complain.

"_You draw back and swing, like this; look." I swung my racket forwards once more._

_Sakai stood and watched, still looking slightly perplexed. _

"_You're doing it too quickly, Matsuno," Yuuta said gently, moving his arm slowly, showing clearly how his wrist and had moved._

"_Oh, I get it," Sakai said excitedly, her expression clearing up. _

Need I mention that Yuuta was a much better teacher than I? Never mind complaining; I should probably have thanked him on a bent knee. God alone knows what would happen to the next generation of tennis players if the coaching had been left to people like _me_.

But I had not thanked him. I had even stopped appreciating the long hours he'd spent trying to teach Sakai backhand properly, after a while. As selfish as it sounds, I'd kind of resented it when we'd left the courts, with her so much more skilled than before, and me not even having broken out into a sweat.

Minutes later, I slammed the door closed to my big empty house and followed Atobe's driver out to the curb, where the sleek, stylish but low profile vehicle stood.

I slid inside the car that Atobe had specifically asked to have for his last birthday, knowing that I disliked being picked up by his limo, not wanting to attract too much attention. I fingered a can of my favourite fruit juice in the small cooler, and felt the warmth drain out of my palm. The chill seemed to spread beyond my hand, the cold filtering through my body all the way down to my feet…

And I wondered, for the first time, whether leaving Hyotei had really been such a good idea.

|YUUTA|

I sat opposite Sakai, uncomfortably shifting in my seat. She had only come to my house to borrow some grip tape, originally. And we'd planned to talk for just a little while. But eventually dinner had rolled around, and that was how I'd ended up fidgeting at the table while we ate and sorely regretting not keeping track of the time, or at least suggesting that we eat out.

Not that I didn't like having Sakai around.

But…

"Ne, Yuuta, is Matsuno busy tonight?" aniki said pleasantly, smiling this cheerful, contented smile that I was sure masked a maniacal laugh or something. Clearly he was making more out of my sudden friendship with Sakai than was necessary.

It didn't help that she was actually very pretty.

But I was NOT affected by that. Of course not! I am just stating something obvious which happens to be relevant to the current situation, that's all. It did NOT mess with my judgement or anything.

"Yeah, she was. She SAID that she has an appointment with someone else," I said defensively, neglecting to mention that the 'appointment' was something Matsuno had 'suddenly remembered' when we'd left the court. It bothered me that she for some reason wanted to avoid me, but naturally I wasn't going to say anything about it to anyone, and definitely not to aniki.

"Saa…" the dangerously vague reply came. Aniki absentmindedly picked up a mouthful of his rice. "It would be nice to have her for dinner. It's strange that she hadn't visited us already, even though you've known her for an appropriate amount of time…"

He was so plainly screwing with my mind, turning ever so slightly in Sakai's direction, all but screaming that I'd only met her two days ago.

"Isn't it strange, Yuuta?" he asked, all innocence.

"Yes, very…" I mumbled, fighting the impulse to reach over and strangle him.

Let's face it, did I even _need _his help to make me feel more guilty than I already felt, providing that it was possible? And on top of feeling bad about being a horrible person by _completely ignoring_ Matsuno that day at the tennis courts, I had to go and feel terrible about being a horrible person because I hadn't even noticed or minded completely ignoring my friend.

Hating myself for it now didn't do much for me or her.

"Fuji? What's up? You look kind of spacey." Sakai waved a hand in front of my face.

"Oh, nothing, I was just thinking," I tried to sound casual and grinned. The next moment, I had dropped my eyes back to my food.

She and Matsuno looked too much alike for comfort.

_I'll call her later_, I decided. _Apologise and make sure she still shows up next Saturday_. Taking some affirmative action—or at least _thinking_ about taking some affirmative action—put my mind at relative peace, leaving it to fully concentrate on dealing with aniki's relentless hints and teasing. Leading to my leaving the table unscathed with my life.

And my friend.

"Say, Fuji, you wouldn't have any books or something on tennis, would you? You might say that it's too early for me to even think about strategy, but I say the sooner I get used to the mindset I have to think in, the better," Sakai said, still pumped up about our 'lesson'. "I know you've wasted enough time one me today, but if you have some and could lend them to me…"

_Call Matsuno_, I reminded myself.

"Not that I think you'd actually need a bunch of books to get this good…" Sakai smiled apologetically. "But I really do need some."

I remembered that I had some old training manuals or something similar stored up in my room… _They would be perfect for beginners like her._

_Call Matsuno_, I said to myself once again._ She must be feeling really left out, after today…which is why she made up the appointment thing…of course! Why didn't I see it before?_

Quickly, I ran up to my room and pulled out an old dusty box from my closet, choosing a few books at random, anxious to get some privacy soon. "Here, I don't know how much help these will be, but you can borrow them if you like."

"Wow, I can't wait to start!" Sakai exclaimed, and then giggled after flipping through the first few pages. "I bet I'll be up all night just figuring out the terms, though. And you'd never had to use a dictionary on this, right?" she said enviously, though she searched through the index optimistically, brightening every time she spotted a topic she knew.

_She'll never understand anything, at this stage_.

But on she went hopefully, sifting through the material as though spending half a day on it would be worthwhile, as long as she got just a little shred of useful information.

"Here, I'll explain a few of the technical terms," I offered, putting aside my phone call to Matsuno.

_For a little while only_, I promised myself.

_I'll talk to her later, definitely. Just a little later…_


	11. Chapter 10

_Ch:_ Ten

* * *

|YUUTA|

I dragged the phone out of its holder and allowed a long, rattling sigh to escape through my clenched teeth. Looking helplessly at the plastic buttons, I irritably punched out the numbers and listening to the soft ringing that I knew was now resounding in my home.

Once again, I had single-handedly proven that I could make a complete fool of myself, even WITHOUT the help of either aniki or Mizuki. Which, on reflection, was decidedly worse, since in this case I couldn't really go and yell at anyone without being completely unfair to said person. Not to mention that I felt ten times as bad about it than if it had been someone else's fault.

I still hadn't spoken to Matsuno. Not that I hadn't wanted to; maybe Sakai was a lot more of a distraction than I'd normally willingly admit, but when it came down to really getting something done, I doubted that she would have been that much of a hindrance. Of course not; I still had a reasonable amount of self discipline, of course not…

So, the problem?

"Moshi moshi?" came the deceivingly mellow voice through the receiver.

"Hello, aniki?" I said heavily, bracing myself and lifting the phone slightly farther away from my ear.

_Three…two…one…_

"YUUTA!"

I looked up at the small patch of sky I could see outside my dormitory window. _Why me?_

"Saa! You're calling home more and more often! Have you finally decided that we've really got to talk with each other more?" Aniki sounded delighted.

"Er…no." It was just plain crazy, the kind of stuff these things called tensais thought up. In my opinion, people should really stop humouring them, even if they _are_ geniuses in one way or another. "No, there's actually a small problem that…" I took a deep breath. "…that I'd like you to help me with."

You will understand why I had chosen the seclusion of my dorm to make this call.

I hadn't wanted too many people to faint on me.

Due to, you know, shock.

"It's about Matsuno," I added quickly, knowing that I wouldn't be able to get a single word in once—

"Yuuta! Of course I'll help you! Saa, aren't we brothers? We should always be there to help each other!"

Etc., etc.

During this onslaught, I could perfectly well have abandoned the phone and gone off to explain the situation to someone else, figure out a suitable game plan and make a cup of coffee before picking up again and still have time to spare. I briefly wondered whether or not I'd be better off with confining in Mizuki, before dismissing this idea hurriedly; Mizuki, while being as good a data collector as you could get around St. Rudolph, hadn't done an especially great job at making people like him. Thus I figured that it would've been unwise to ask him about human relations.

Matsuno just might end up hating me for the rest of her life, or something similar.

"Aniki," I cut in the moment he had to stop for breath. "The thing is…I, er, want to talk to Matsuno, because, um…"

For once I hoped that he would come up with some ridiculous assumption that I could play along with, as long as I got the desired results anyway.

Strangely enough, aniki didn't make any guesses to help me in that direction, but remained silent.

"Because…well, I just do." I finished, frustrated at how lame that sounded, even to me.

"Saa…"

My brow unconsciously furrowed. At this moment, it seemed, when I'd least wanted it to happen, aniki had got serious.

"Ne, Yuuta, did you two have an argument? Is that why she didn't come to visit with Sakai that night?" he asked quietly. Though it wasn't exactly a question; more like he was simply asking for confirmation. Like he knew already, but wanted an open confession.

I hated it, hated that my _older brother_ seemed to know more about what went on between me and my friends than me myself. "That's not the point," I snapped, simply because it felt so degrading.

Suddenly it seemed a good deal more important that I outshine this teen who thought he knew—and unfortunately did know—more of what was going on with my life than I did. And not just in tennis; I could not settle for simply being his equal or superior—hey, I can still dream—in tennis, not when I couldn't even manage the little things.

Not when I still had to count on him to fix my problems for me.

Speaking of which…

"Look, aniki, this is really between Matsuno and me. She's _my_ friend, remember? But I still need your help. I need to talk with her, I've been thinking about calling her for some time now…"

"And, the problem…?"

_Your problem is that you think you know all about me, even though we don't live together anymore. You know so much that you can even predict what mistakes I'll make… And you know what the solution is because you are JUST PLAIN BETTER._

"The problem…" I swallowed. It was such a small, tiny hitch. Something anyone could have done. Anyone but my brother.

"Yes, Yuuta?" he prompted, though I had the distinct feeling that he probably already had some idea.

I sighed, a long, rattling sigh.

"Nothing much…I just realised that I don't have her number…that's all."

|HIKARA|

It was one of those Tuesday morning practices when you've just got out of bed, still feeling sleepy, and your head feels blurry like you're coming down with a cold.

Oh, and you're weighed down with the problem concerning the potential loss of one of the best friends you've met in a long while.

Which can really bother you a bit, believe me.

"Matsuno!" Ann called out in greeting, waving a hand cheerfully. "How are you today?"

"Sleepy," I said, sounding more droopy than I'd expected I would. "Not a problem. The senpais will wake me up with plenty of laps, I'm sure. Unless you successfully distract them…hmm, actually…could you? Yes. I don't think they'll bother about one member slacking off if they see some drastic technique growth… From you, I mean. What about it?"

Ann giggled. "Stop it!" she pouted playfully. "You'll give me a big head, one of these days… Those tournaments are getting nearer, though," she reminded me, immediately solemn. "I could really do with a bit more improvement."

"Let's start practice then," I suggested, and walked off towards the tennis courts as Ann broke into a trot, rushing ahead. I gave a small smile. Sudden breakthroughs didn't come to me, like they came to tensais or some other legendary players. Or maybe even to Ann, once in a while; I wouldn't know, but definitely not me.

The pace I set for myself as we began our training with a few laps was steady. A few of the other club members sprinted past me, anxious to gain as much stamina as possible, to deal with the upcoming tournament.

It was slightly strange, having a bunch of people running in front of me for once, while I normally led most of the team. I resisted the urge to accelerate and catch up with them, going no faster and no slower than I usually would have. Advances in skill or stamina took time… . A last minute burst of extensive training wasn't the way to go… Over exertion just tended to get people injured, anyway, Yuuta said…

One of my feet gave an involuntary jerk, causing the other foot to nearly trip over it.

"Daijoubu, Matsuno?" Ann asked, concerned, as she passed by to overtake me. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," I gasped, quite out of breath now that my pace had been broken.

Yuuta again.

_Damn. _

Things got a little better, once there was actual tennis to distract me.

"15-love," I said evenly, taking another tennis ball from the basket beside me and tossing it to Ann. "Try to relax; you're getting impatient."

"I'm losing five games to three, of course I'm impatient!" Ann flustered. Catching the ball, she tossed it up at once and hit it with full force.

I hadn't yet mastered the art of returning high speed serves of someone who's obviously lost patience with the game. In fact, even controlled serves sometimes got the better of me. Yuuta was getting a lot better—

"Ugh!" My racket swung high as the ball soared back to Ann's side of the net, returned by a slicing backhand of mine, as the strings gave a satisfying 'ping'.

Good thing instinct always came first.

No time to think, only to react. The ball flew back at me, always, each time heading for a different part of the courts.

"Ugh!" I sent it back.

Another came.

"Ugh!"

And another—and another—

The match was my sanctuary, a place where there were no troubles, no problems, except for the girl, obscured below the waist by the taunt netting. No dilemmas…no Yuuta… Though of course I thought nothing of this at the time. There was just the match… Only the ball and the racket, the net and the white lines marking the ground.

"Game and match!" I finally said triumphantly near the end of that day's practice, trotting up to shake Ann's hand.

"Tell me, do you usually eat or sleep?" she asked weakly. "It's only been…what? A month? No one normal can improve that much in a month…"

I smiled at her incredulity, though secretly giddy at my own results. "I was lucky today. You weren't going all out."

The petite brunette let go of my hand and placed hers on her waist, eyeing me suspiciously. "I couldn't have taken the match even if I had been going all out and you know it. Is this some sort of plot to get me to let my guard down so you can continue whatever demonic training programme you're on and get better without any of us noticing?"

_Demonic training programme?_

If she was right and one of us was overdoing it, it definitely wasn't me.

I quirked an eyebrow at her. "I'm not on any demonic training programmes, I can assure you. Anyway, wouldn't you have discovered that sort of thing earlier, with your amazing deductive skills?"

"_Matsuno!_" Ann squealed, apparently unable to decide whether I was being sarcastic or not.

_Eh? So it isn't just Yuuta_. My internal knitting brow relaxed a little. I was being stupid. Yuuta was undeniably a great friend, but it wasn't like he was the only one. Fudonime was pretty big, after all. Plenty of tennis players that I would get along with perfectly well…

There was nothing whatsoever to worry about.

"Matsuno!" Ann said again, her tone losing its playfulness.

"What?" I asked at once, turning around to face the spot she had been staring at over my shoulder.

The noise level in the courts had gone up significantly. The rest of our club members, if not gasping or inhaling sharply, were muttering in question. Even some of the players on the boys' courts had stopped their rallying or whatever else they were doing.

Craning my neck, I looked over a small huddle of excited girls to see the source of the disturbance, and ended up gasping, inhaling sharply and whispering strings of questions myself.

Among the many arms and bodies, I spotted the tennis bag.

Over all the other heads, I caught a glimpse of the brown hair.


	12. Chapter 11

_Ch: _Eleven

* * *

|HIKARA|

And my grey eyes met the blue.

"That's strange…no one from Seigaku has ever come here before," Ann mused. "Why is Fuji here, then?"

To say the truth, I didn't really care _why_ he'd suddenly decided to show up, only that he had. Because while the small huddle of girls around him were tripping over themselves to worship their 'Fuji-kun', to me the appearance of Seigaku's tensai only meant one thing: a chance to obtain news about Yuuta.

"I don't know…" I frowned in his general direction, debating whether to go over that instant, or to wait a while until he'd dealt with his newly established Fan Girl Club of Fudomine.

I was spared the decision, however, because a moment later, Fuji gently extracted himself from his adoring admirers and strode over to where I was standing with Ann, who still looked vaguely puzzled.

"Saa, konnichi'wa, Matsuno," he greeted cheerfully, lifting a hand in welcome.

"Konnichi'wa, Fuji," I replied warily, having just been struck with this wild idea that the tennis prodigy had come all the way to Fudomine—taking a lot of trouble to get there before everyone finished cleaning up and left too, judging by the thin sheen of sweat that covered his pale skin; a sigh of having ran all the way from the nearby bus stop—with the exact intent of talking to me, given his enthusiasm about his brother's affairs.

I mentally rolled my eyes almost at once at this impulsive gut feeling. Hadn't I said it myself? Tennis prodigy, rush all the way from Seigaku to meet _me_ of all people about his younger sibling's social issues? My gut, apparently, was losing its touch.

_Stupid idea…thank God I haven't said anything yet… _

_Stop obsessing over Yuuta…_

"Tachibana," Fuji nodded to Ann before turning back to me. "Ne, Matsuno, is practice finished for you yet? Could you spare a few minutes afterwards? I was wondering if I could speak to you about something."

At that point, I was already bordering on incredulity.

He smiled apologetically. "It's about Yuuta."

Then again, there was still something to be said for these gut feelings of mine.

"Sure, I'm not doing anything in particular," I tried to say as nonchalantly as possible, brushing aside the fact that my breath had caught slightly in my chest due to excitement.

I was going to have some idea of what was going on.

Finally.

Promising a slightly disappointed—but much, _much_ more curious—Ann that I'd go with her and the other girls for a snack another day, I hitched my bag onto my shoulder and stepped into pace beside Fuji. There was a lot of staring as we passed the boys' court. On their part, of course. Kamio, a boy I knew from class, was looking strangely relieved for some reason, as he watched me pass by conversing lightly with the smiling brunette at my side. There was this other blue-haired boy, Shinji, I vaguely remembered, who was a friend of Kamio's. I couldn't help worrying about this one.

_If he mutters any faster his face muscles are going to have a seizure._

"So, how was practice?" Fuji didn't seem inclined to start getting anywhere on topics concerning Yuuta straight away.

"It was fine. They're trying to step up training now that there's a tournament coming up," I answered with a shrug, noting at the same time that unless he really held a genuine interest in the progress of the girls' tennis team of another school, he was trying to let us both familiarise ourselves with each other before moving on to something more serious. "I'll bet Seigaku is improving loads more…your practices are so much longer…"

He chuckled. "Not so very much longer, since I've been able to make it in time before you left. You overestimate other people too much, Matsuno." He glanced around at our surroundings, answering only distractedly.

It looked as though he wanted to find a place to sit down before we began. Impatient, now that the information was so close at hand, I suggested that we go to a small tennis court nearby, somewhat recalling that there were benches.

"This will do." Sitting himself primly down upon the bench, he waited till I was also seated before getting straight to the point.

"Yuuta sent me, actually. He has been wanting to call you, but doesn't have your number."

I waited expectantly for him to continue for a few seconds, before realising that he already had finished, and was waiting for my reply. "That's all?" I was tempted to ask. If he'd just wanted my phone number, he could've just asked for it at the school. Why take the trouble of coming such a long way?

"…I see. Um, well, I'll write it down…and…you can give it to him," I said, trying not to sound like I'd just been thrown off balance. "Erm, he's not coming home this weekend, so he can't ask me himself?" I ventured.

Fuji smiled. Or rather, the ends of his thin lips gave a slight, almost invisible twitch.

It wasn't like he wasn't smiling already.

He had been, in fact, since he'd arrived at Fudomine. If I hadn't met him before, and found out that this was a kind of peculiar habit of his, I'd have thought that he was trying to relieve tension of an unpleasant discussion beforehand.

"No, he is coming home. Theoretically he could wait till then and ask you of it personally, but I guess he didn't really want to wait."

I let myself smile a bit too, as I turned around to unzip my bag and retrieve a pen and paper. He couldn't wait, Fuji had said… Yuuta couldn't wait to speak to me.

"Here…" Scribbling my home number onto the paper, I handed it to Fuji, who took it with a polite 'thank you' and stowed it in his pocket, and turned back to face me, leaning forwards slightly, setting his hands on his knees, with no apparent intention of getting up.

The gut feeling surged.

There was more.

"Ne, Matsuno, I'd appreciate it if we could keep the following…confidential," he said. "Yuuta doesn't like me sticking my nose in his business."

I thought I saw a spasm of sadness cross his face, but dismissed it immediately; the smile had not changed. "Sure, whatever you say."

"Then I'll be frank with you, Matsuno. Have you had an argument of any sort with Yuuta?"

I looked into his face, surprised that—despite the ever present cheerful, carefree smile—he sounded so solemn. "An argument?" I would have passed it off as a joke, if it hadn't been for the seriousness in his voice. "No, not that I know of. Why do you ask?"

"Saa…" Fuji rocked back and forth on the bench. "I wonder about that too, actually. I had no concrete proof…just my intuition…"

"Intuition," I told him, from—very recent—self experience, "can tell you a lot."

"Well, this time it told me all the wrong things, it seems." He chuckled lightly. "Yuuta is beyond intuition, then…it wouldn't be the first time…" His voice faded; his eyes started to glaze over.

I, of course, hadn't the foggiest idea what he was going on about, but felt that if it involved Yuuta, I would be better off being in the know.

Yes, it was a gut feeling.

Or as Fuji put it, intuition. Which I by now trusted a lot more than before.

Though he'd just said that in Yuuta's case, it didn't really work.

But I went on anyway.

"Is something the matter with Yuuta, Fuji?"

The rocking stopped, and he looked thoughtful. "No," he finally decided.

Which _totally_ justified his theory of me being in a fight with Yuuta.

"No," he said. "I thought there was something wrong with the two of you."

"Well…" Now that I really thought about it, there was nothing really wrong between Yuuta and me. True, I mightn't have been completely pleased with him the last time we'd met, but nothing had really happened. Maybe he'd sensed that something had been different about me, when I'd made up that excuse about having an appointment with someone to avoid hanging out any more with him and Sakai, but we hadn't opened any hostilities or anything. "…nothing _happened_, really…"

"But," Fuji leaned in just a fraction of an inch. "Yuuta called me, and really, he doesn't do that much if he can help it, and he explicitly asked me to come and get your number for him. When it came to reasons he got all snappish."

Now, I decided, Fuji was inclining towards making a mountain out of a molehill. "Maybe he just doesn't like answering so many questions. Some people simply don't."

_Especially the questions of his brother_, I added silently. Not that I had anything against Fuji personally, but having his unsatisfied younger brother around tended to influence me. Yuuta and I now had our 'goals' in the open. For me, it was Hyotei, and for him, it was his aniki. Practically, these were just things we used to provoke or encourage each other on the courts during practice, but since it's technically a lot harder to be motivated to surpass something or somebody that you quite like in the first place, we'd come to think of these 'goals' as sort of 'enemies' that we had to beat. And since Yuuta and I were supposed to be on the same side…

It was hard to shake the habit of being just a bit guarded against Fuji.

"On the day you last saw him, were you really busy after practice, or were you just looking to escape his company for a while?"

And he in turn, it seemed, was guarded towards me.

Well, two could play this game. "That's kind of random. What brought it up?"

"Nothing, nothing," he chuckled, waving his hand.

"Er…" I wondered what was going on inside his head, but decided that if he didn't want to give an answer, I wouldn't be able to force one out of him anyway, and let it drop. "Um, well, if you really think something's wrong concerning Yuuta…I suggest you just go ask him about it." Though I knew, perfectly well, that Yuuta probably would never tell his older brother a thing.

"I know, but…" The gentle rocking began again, back and forth, back and forth. "I guess Yuuta will have told you all about his…viewpoint…of me."

I momentarily couldn't decide what to say. It had just seemed so unlikely that Fuji already knew how Yuuta felt about him, and _still_ make the mistakes he did.

"Well…Yuuta likes his privacy," I said slowly, trying to decide how much to say. "He doesn't really dislike you, he just…he just likes his privacy sometimes…isn't the most open of people."

"But he is with you," Fuji said, in a tone so soft, yet so melancholy.

I looked up just in time to receive the shock of my life as his eyes slowly opened to reveal very blue eyes. I stared at them; I'd seen plenty of blue eyes before, but so very intense…and for the first time…he'd always had his eyes closed… I kind of understood why. His gaze made me a little uncomfortable.

"Not—not really, not as much as you think…" I said, desperate to take that almost sorrowful note out of his voice, while the back of my mind mulled over this sudden outburst. I really had a knack of giving people emotional upheavals.

"I've seen you two practice together," Fuji said lightly, all smiles again. The eyes were hidden once more. The tensai was in control. "He trusts you, really. He let you help him with his special moves…Super Rising…"

"That's because…he helped me with my moves…so I helped him back…" I explained, thoroughly unnerved by sudden and very drastic change in atmosphere.

"Oh, yes, he loves to help, Yuuta," Fuji agreed fervently, with a strong—and did I mention sudden?—sense of pride.

"…right…"

"But he doesn't really like to be helped a lot." Fuji bowed his head. "Only his team-mates, I think…and now you…"

Deciding against causing more emotional fluctuation for him, I didn't say anything, but stared at his profile with question mixed with perhaps a little pity. The rocking had ceased once more, and Fuji was sitting completely still, hands still pushing against his knees, neck and head hanging low. My line of sight travelled along the arc of his shoulders to his locked elbows to the hair that hung loosely, unattended to, around his face, and had to admit that this hardly looked anything like the brother Yuuta had described so frequently which he obviously resented but at the same time highly respected.

It was a little ridiculous, that I should see him like this, while Yuuta himself…

Of all the things Yuuta had mentioned about his aniki, Seigaku's renown tennis prodigy with his never-lost-a-match record and sparkling social reputation, he had never really seemed to be aware that the boy in question was actually halfway broken.


	13. Chapter 12

_Ch:_ Twelve

* * *

|HIKARA|

I flopped down upon the sofa.

Again.

I half groaned, half sighed.

Again.

Sitting up straight and yet not feeling comfortable, I raised my legs and hoisted myself completely onto the cushions, laying down and stretching fretfully.

I couldn't care less if anyone thought I was acting like those girls in romance books or soap operas, waiting around for their boyfriend to call and going completely overboard with the anxiety and insecurity. And all the while doing _nothing whatsoever_ about it.

The fact remained that I really was looking forwards to Yuuta's call.

If it ever came, that it. I'd rather thought that he'd be calling earlier; slightly before dinner, most likely, when he'd finished practice and had a moment of free time.

_Apparently not_. And to think that I'd stayed home all evening, not daring to even step out onto the front porch, lest I miss the call.

Laying down didn't feel like quite the right position to be in. Getting up again, I proceeded to sit back, trying to relax against the softness of the sofa.

The whole aggravating and yet amusing situation caused me to burst out into laughter, which actually held mirth, even if it was short lived. The sound echoed eerily inside my house, so that when silence settled again, it seemed even emptier and dead than before.

The phone did not ring.

Seriously, though, I really did wonder if, in some absurd case where someone was actually interested in my life, any book or television show about me would be of any entertainment to anybody. More often than not in those kinds of shows and books, there were a few scenes in which the heroine sat restlessly and either caressed or strangled the phone, pining for her lover. Which was all very well since you'd have this whole background story of her starting out with a perfectly nice guy who loved her dearly and had a great time with her before the rival of the heroine showed up and proceeded to lure the guy away because she, the rival, was prettier or more flirtatious or whatnot.

I suppose anyone in that situation deserves the privilege of being able to hang around and angst for a while.

Me, on the other hand? Yuuta was not my boyfriend. So in that sense Sakai was not a threat to me because there was nothing to be threatened.

Which probably made my current state kind of pathetic and all, but…

Frustration flipped over in my stomach and turned into tingling confidence. Yes, exactly, she was not a threat. Unlike a boyfriend or a girlfriend, you could have more than one friend, right? So Yuuta wouldn't be pressured to 'choose' between us. My worrying was had no solid basis.

And surely… A grin spread over my face. Surely, even if he really had to 'choose', who said his choice wouldn't be me? In fact, I was pretty sure it would be me; he'd gone through all the trouble to ask his brother, whom he disliked asking favours of, to come to Fudomine and ask for my telephone number, hadn't he? Because he couldn't wait to ask me himself later on in the week. What did that tell you?

So maybe he'd got held up by something. Fine, he'd still call. Fuji would've given the number to him by now, given how eager he was about talking to Yuuta. He'd have called St. Rudolph at first chance…

_Ring!_

_What did I tell you?_ My grin grew wider. Somehow, I knew, I just knew, even though my phone didn't have caller ID and I wouldn't have been able to recognise his number even if it had shown up, that it was Yuuta.

_Ring!_

I shot out a hand to snatch up the phone, but stopped short two inches away from it.

It wouldn't do to look like I'd been waiting by the phone for his call…even if I had been. I didn't want to look needy and clingy. _After the third ring_, I told myself,_ then I'll pick up_.

_Ring!_

My hand shot out again and this time it did snatch up the phone. "Hello?" I tried to sound calm, unhurried, and slightly curious, as though I hadn't expected the call.

_Beep beep beep…_

Slowly, I brought the receiver away from my ear and stared at it in disbelief. Three rings? After three short rings within the span of less than ten seconds he'd already hung up?

The thought that he was just really busy didn't occur to me. All I thought was that he'd only made the call to justify his asking Fuji to get the number; no one could tack any blame on him if he really had called and I simply hadn't answered it.

Which didn't make a lot of sense when you think about it, given all the trouble he'd gone through to get my number. But I guess I _was_ kind of upset in the first place, so what would you expect?

I placed the phone back into its holder, ignoring the faint beep that told me it was starting to recharge.

Though _why_ it needed to, when I hadn't even used it…

Again, I sat back, a curious phrase I'd once heard somewhere…maybe from someone in Seigaku, popping up into my head.

_Hmm… I rather think…_

I had let my guard down.

|YUUTA|

"Tennis? Tonight?" I asked incredulously.

"Yeah, why not?" Sakai asked brightly.

"Well, I suppose it's possible, with the lights on in the courts…" I unwillingly admited.

"So?" she prompted eagerly.

"Uh…maybe some other time," I said apologetically. "There's something important that I want to do tonight."

"Oh, ok," Sakai agreed dully, evidently subdued. "I guess we can play some other time then."

"Yes, of course we can. Keep practising by yourself if you're bored or anything. I've got to go now. Bye!" I hung up, rather hurriedly, I admit, and replaced the dormitory phone. Striding swiftly back to my bed, I retrieved my cell phone that I'd abandoned on it when the other phone had rung.

Picking up the piece of paper I'd written Matsuno's number on, I punched in the number again, feeling a spasm of nervousness across my chest, gushing up to my throat. I hoped that she was home. I'd had to hang up the last time I'd called because of the interruption by Sakai, and she, Matsuno, hadn't answered. Then again, three rings wasn't a long time. She'd just probably think that she was getting prank calls or something.

_Ring, ring_. The sound was more of a purr than a ring, inside my phone.

Apologising for ignoring her last time we'd met at the courts wouldn't be that hard, I imagined. She wouldn't grudge me for it, I was sure. Maybe after the awkwardness had passed, we'd talk a little. We hadn't done a lot of that recently.

_Ring, ring_.

She'd probably start telling me how aniki tried to wheedle information about me out of her. Her imitations of him made me laugh.

_Ring, ring._

She sure was taking her time. But I supposed that after what she'd most likely thought was a prank call or a wrong number, she'd want to make sure.

_Ring, ring._

Or, she might have gone out. Though I'd thought that she'd be expecting my call, since she'd given aniki her number and all.

_Ring, ring._

I decided that I'd wait for two more rings before I hung up. A lot of times, the person on the other end picked up just a ring or two after the caller gave up.

_Ring, ring._

I was so sure that the ringing would stop short, and her voice would sound through the speaker.

_Ring, ring._

Well, the thing about the person answering right after a hang up still held true. I would wait two more.

_Ring, ring._

Two more, and then I'd call another day.

_Ring, ring._

Maybe just two more.

_Ring, ring…_


	14. Chapter 13

_Ch:_ Thirteen

* * *

|HIKARA|

It was then that it started to drizzle. A very dramatic scene indeed, me walking on the deserted street with the rain falling on me, seemingly unnoticed.

It wasn't that I was really so depressed and absorbed in my own thoughts that I didn't mind the rain soaking me through. But face it, I hadn't brought an umbrella and there was no lasting shelter in sight. I would've got really wet by the time I'd arrived anywhere, my home, from which I'd just come and had no intention of going back to yet, or Atobe's.

So, without any prospects of doing anything about the rain, I just let it be.

The road to my silver-haired friend's mansion was long. We'd taken it before, only once, me and him. I'd forgotten exactly why, but it was because of that one journey that I was able to find my way to my destination without calling for him to come pick me up. The route was long, but fairly straight forward and easy to memorise.

The gate was still open when I'd arrived. The Atobes had many visitors, and opening the heavy iron things every time was deemed too much of a hassle, even with all the staff they had. I made my way along the wide brick path towards the actual mansion, feeling quite at home since I had visited often, but at the same time feeling a little awkward travelling alone.

As the house loomed up I veered off the road and onto the grass that surrounded most of the building, rounding the corner and glimpsing the tennis courts.

Craning my neck, I tried to make out which lit window was that of Atobe's private room. The butler who answered the door knew me, but since I was arriving without notifying anyone beforehand…

Locating the correct window, I picked up a small pebble but dropped it again, deciding against the risk of ruining the potentially expensive glass. Hesitating for a second, I whispered as loudly as I could, "Keigo!"

There was no movement inside the room. It was on the second floor; sound didn't carry as well. "Keigo!" I tried again, slightly louder.

The rain was starting to get into my eyes. Squinting, I continued to gaze upwards as a dash of silver appeared at the window.

"Who disturbs ore-sama?" came the imperious call. "Why did you not announce yourself at the door?"

"Keigo!" I whispered fiercely.

A look of shock was on the portion of his face that I could see from the light spilling out from the room he was in. True, I'd never really shown up in this fashion before. "_Hikara?_"

His head ducked back into the house. Treading the wet grass, I turned around and went back towards the main door, but before I'd got there, it had already flown open.

Atobe hurriedly closed the distance between us and held an umbrella above me. "Hikara, what has gone wrong? Why didn't you call for ore-sama to send the car?" He peered down at my rain streaked face, his expression a peculiar of worry. I had never really got used to seeing him without his smirk. "Sorry," I muttered. "I just thought of coming here and didn't really think about…"

"You are shivering badly. Come, ore-sama shall obtain some dry clothes for you." Taking my arm, he pulled me along, crossing the threshold and into the house to the raised eyebrows of the butler and a few maids that happened to be around.

Surprisingly, he didn't order anyone to get anything for me, but led me up the stairs and in the direction of his own room. "Come, you shall find all you need in your room."

"My room? Keigo, I didn't know you stocked clothes in any of the guest bedrooms—" But I stopped short as he gave me a gentle push into a small—for his standards—bedroom right beside his and closed the door.

It was almost an exact replica of my own room at home. There were a few subtle differences, of course; the bed was perhaps a little bit bigger, the desk and chair a little bit shinier an newer. There was a carpet where there should have been wooden tiles, but the colour was similar. And maybe my own room didn't have silk curtains but at least these were white.

I stepped towards the cabinet and fingered the stuffed toys on top of it. A little fancier, maybe, but so similar to my own! Even the details, like the tennis ball alarm clock, was there, though that probably hadn't been hard to find; Atobe had given me my old one as a present.

The drawers opened, revealing the clothes he had mentioned. Pulling the top shirt out, it made my eyes open wide to see that I actually owned that exact shirt. Tugging out drawer after drawer, it almost scared me to see what looked like my own clothes, placed in all the right places. Sifting through everything, I found some pieces of clothing that I'd certainly never worn before, but for the most part, it was like Atobe had just taken the cabinet from my room and brought it here.

Dazedly I peeled off my wet things and put on dry ones, still marvelling at exactly how alike this room was to mine. _You have to hand it to him…he really knew what he was doing_.

Atobe was waiting outside when I eventually opened the door. "Does Hikara approve?" He smirked, waiting for my reaction, completely sure that he'd done a good job. He was Atobe Keigo, after all.

_There he goes again, blowing up his own ego._

I was sure, now, that whether leaving Hyotei for Fudomine had been a mistake or not, avoiding Atobe ever since I'd left certainly had.

Stepping forwards, I gave him a fleeting hug.

But when I tried to step back, I found that I couldn't. Atobe was hugging me back, either unaware or not caring that I was still a bit damp and was wetting his pristine attire.

It had been a while since I'd had a proper hug, with my parents still in Italy and all my relatives living rather far away. I guess I just missed feeling the warmth. Snuggling closer, I buried my face somewhere near his shoulder and clung on. A little desperately, now that I think about it, like a child clinging to her mother.

And he held me still closer, pressing me against him in a tight hug, like somehow he had known how much I had needed one.

|YUUTA|

"That was such a good game!" Sighing contentedly, Sakai stretched her arms upwards, as if reaching for the pink and purple clouds that streaked across the evening sky.

"You're getting better," I told her. "Matches with you are actually starting to get tiring."

She stopped in mid-stretch and let her hands fall to he sides. "Thanks…I think…" She gave me a sideways, uncertain look. "You sure you aren't pushing yourself too hard?"

"No, I'm fine for now. But at the rate you're going…" I had been having practice matches with Sakai every weekday after my own normal practice, and had seen her improve greatly. She still hadn't become too much of a challenge to me during an actual match, though, so while light swings on my part were sufficient training for her, they didn't tire me out too much. The more tiring thing, in the mental sense, was that Mizuki was 'hmm-ing' a great deal more than usual and a great deal more than was good for me or him.

"Hmmm…."

See?

Mizuki sat on a nearby bench, legs crossed, a finger absent-mindedly twisting a strand of his hair, and a smirk dancing on his thin lips.

"Yes, Mizuki-senpai?" Sakai asked innocently.

I groaned inwardly. After all this time, she _still_ had no idea that prompting data collectors, especially this data collector, was potentially dangerous to both your physical and psychological health. Well, more psychological for her, because he hadn't the power to increase her training menu or give her laps, in case she didn't produce satisfactory answers.

It was like messing with aniki. The one thing the two of them had in common was that they both had an interest in threatening the human sanity. The only difference was that aniki tended to concentrate his firepower on me, unlike Mizuki, who did it to everyone in general.

"Hmm…" Mizuki mused again, much too mysteriously and dramatically for intentions that were remotely good, or at least harmless. "I was just pondering about the unusual enthusiasm Yuuta shows in coaching you. He'd never really been the teaching sort…"

"Mizuki-senpai!" I exclaimed, quite frantic. "We're just having matches, that's all! Liking matches is normal! I'm not really—teaching—her! It's just like how it is when—"

_When I play matches with Matsuno_, I silently finished. But I knew that if Mizuki heard that I was meeting another girl in private, even if it was a much more innocent affair than he'd think, I'd never hear the end of it.

"Yes?" he prompted with another twisted smile.

"When…I play matches with Atsushi or anyone else," I made up at top speed, struggling to convince myself that I had sounded convincing about it.

"Hmm…"

Seeing as this was getting none of us anywhere, I tried to inconspicuously go on my way when Mizuki was staring off into the distance doing his pondering, motioning for Sakai to follow quietly.

"Wow, I think Mizuki-senpai must be a really deep thinker," she commented, actually sounding impressed at the nerve-wrecking 'hmm-ing'.

"He thinks he must be too," I grumbled back, though my mind was only half on it. I'd successfully diverted Mizuki's attention from Matsuno once more, but I hadn't been as successful with myself, unfortunately. I'd been calling her home every night since Tuesday, and after three days of calling, she still hadn't picked up the phone once.

"Maybe she goes out for a walk every night and you're just calling at all the wrong times," Sakai had suggested when I'd told her about this.

But somehow, I just didn't think that someone with an intensive tennis training programme would be in need of more exercise.

"So, play again tomorrow?"

"Huh?"

"I said, do you want to play again tomorrow?" Sakai repeated.

I looked at her in amusement. In terms of enthusiasm about tennis, she surpassed anyone I knew, including myself and Matsuno. "Gomen, Sakai, but I was thinking of going home this weekend, and…"

I remembered that she lived near me and could easily meet up with me on the street tennis courts. But after last week, I felt more inclined to leave her out of my plans and devote the day to playing a long, hard, exhausting, and exhilarating game of tennis with Matsuno instead, and catch up on her recent news. I badly wanted to find out why she never answered her phone.

"Oh, it's ok," she said, nodding kind of sadly. "I guess I could go and…hit against a wall or something…"

"Well, maybe we could still go and play a few matches," I offered, relenting of my earlier decision despite of myself. "Just not as much."

"Really! Oh, good!" She was all smiles again. "So, I'll be seeing you tomorrow?"

"Uh…I guess that's all right," I hesitantly agreed.

_And how exactly are you planning to have that long match you wanted while alternating between her and Matsuno, unless you bring someone else along? _

"But only…only in the morning, maybe. I think I might have something else to do in the afternoon," I added, sounding surprisingly guilty, though I couldn't think why.

"Great! So, I'll just show up at that place we practised last time, and wait for you to show up if you aren't already there. I'll see what I can do with myself in the afternoon then," Sakai decided. "Right, I'd better go and get my things together. I don't want to leave half my homework behind at school like last time. See you tomorrow!" And she ran off in the direction of the school.

Well, at least I and Matsuno would have at least one afternoon to play tennis or talk, though… I frowned. From past experience, activities involving Sakai tended to go overtime. There was no telling whether we'd have even a whole afternoon.

_Oh boy…_ And I'd really been looking forwards to playing a long game of uninterrupted singles with Matsuno, like we'd done a few times before.

Unless there was someone else there to keep Sakai entertained. But who? It had to be someone whom I'd have easy access to and could call out at the last moment. Someone I knew moderately well…

A sudden possibility sprung up in my mind.

_Oh no, on no_…

I prayed that I wouldn't have to resort to that.


	15. Chapter 14

_Ch: _Fourteen

* * *

|YUUTA|

In the end, I _did_ have to resort to it.

"Saa, nice to see you again, Sakai," aniki said when we arrived at the courts.

"Hi, Fuji!" Sakai returned brightly, and waved to me next. "Hi—uh—Fuji." She smiled weakly. "You know, I'm worried that this will eventually get confusing."

"Don't worry, it already has," I assured her. "Look, why don't you call me Yuuta, and keep calling my aniki 'Fuji'? He isn't really used to anyone but our parents and our sister calling him 'Syusuke'. Not that he would really mind if you did, I think, but I'm afraid that if you tried, you'd get assassinated by a group of fan girls or something."

She raised her eyebrows at that last statement.

"Just call me Yuuta," I simplified.

"Fine with me," she said happily with a shrug.

"Saa," aniki spoke up crisply. "Let's play while it's still early and there aren't so many people."

"Yes, of course," I readily agreed, and we proceeded to decide who would play first, but as everyone was eager to get some action on the court, we ended up playing two against one, with me and Sakai on one team.

"It's our first time playing doubles, isn't it?" she grinned.

"Yeah, should be interesting." Grasping my racket tightly, I concentrated as aniki threw up the ball and served. It seemed so much less important that only a minute ago, I was still wondering whether I should have arranged for us to play on some other nearby courts. At least then I'd actually have to leave and meet Matsuno somewhere else.

Hey, it _was_ a way of keeping my schedule on track.

"Saa, this fun, isn't it, Yuuta? We should play together more often!" Aniki hit the ball back, his face in an elated half laugh.

I winced. This part, I'd rather didn't happen again. As Sakai went to fetch the ball she'd just missed, I made a mental note never to ask aniki out to do play tennis again, unless it was absolutely life-threatening necessary.

And I highly doubted that any of my day to day scenarios would escalate to that.

That way there would be less chance of him getting the wrong idea, and thinking I was starting to idolise him again, or something equally stupid.

"Yuuta!" Sakai warned loudly.

I came back to earth just in time to see the ball heading for me. Dashing forwards I swung my racket low as the yellow sphere was just a mere feet ahead of me. It didn't take too much strength; my brother wasn't a power player, but there was that characteristic bit of spin that he always seemed to put into his returns. A sort of signature, that he had never managed to get rid of. At least, to my best knowledge, he wasn't known to ever have used 'sinker balls'.

On realising that, I vaguely wondered if perhaps I could produce such a shot. It would be another weapon, that was for sure, and could help seal any moves involving spin. I smirked fleetingly. _Matsuno won't like this._

The thing was, 'this' was something I had no idea how to do. When I thought about it more in detail , the theory should have been something of an opposite to Tsubame Gaeshi. If I could hit the ball and keep it touching the racket for the shortest time span possible, without rolling it except to neutralise the spin added on by the opponent, then theoretically I should be able to hit a reasonably effective 'sinker'.

I opened my mouth to yell it out, but checked myself at the last moment. The person on the other side of the net was aniki, not Matsuno. He didn't know about the on-court experiments that I and the latter were very prone to performing. The more I thought about it the more I willed afternoon to come. When it did, I would finally be able to have that long-delayed match with Matsuno.

_Providing she comes, of course_. It was already long passed the time that she'd come to practice the day I'd first met her, which I assumed to be on a routine schedule. The time she arrived, I mean. Obviously I wasn't meeting her on a routine schedule.

She hadn't seemed at all that happy with me the last time we'd met, either, not that I could blame her. I sincerely hoped that she wasn't still trying to avoid me.

Trying to forget about it for the moment, I focused on the game at hand.

_What exactly brought on all these problems?_

|HIKARA|

"Mm, Keigo? I was thinking of going out today." Taking a sip of the ice cold milk he'd just refilled for me—no, he hadn't called for the butler to do it, he'd actually picked up the jug himself—I put my foot down and ended my inner debate once and for all.

_To go or not to go, that is the question_.

One which I'd answered now, apparently.

"Ah, of course. Would you require the car? Would you prefer that ore-sama accompany you?" Atobe temporarily laid down his fork over his half-eaten scrambled eggs, and had his hand half raised, ready to call for his driver. His father, who had recently been hidden behind a newspaper, emerged just long enough to give him an approving look. Which I didn't understand in the least, by the way, since the action of ordering someone to do something wasn't exactly an act that his son rarely did. So, unless the father had something against the driver and had a tendency to overwork the poor man…

"Hm, I don't think it would be good to show up in a car. Yours is pretty fancy looking, even if it isn't as eye-catching as the limo. I just thought I'd go to the street tennis courts near my house for a while, that's all." _And meet Yuuta_, I added silently, though—wisely, I think—neglected to mention this to Atobe, who I remembered hadn't liked Yuuta all that much, for reasons unknown. _Besides _Yuuta not being insanely rich and the king of tennis of his school, I mean.

"Street tennis courts?" he asked incredulously. As expected. "There are courts much more well-equipped and managed at your disposal here."

"Mm, yeah, I know, but I've been using them all week, and I thought, maybe a change in environment…" I hoped that it sounded natural enough, twisting a napkin in my hand. A few days of staying with the Atobes had miraculously put me into a very good mood. With both new optimism and sanity intact, I had come to the conclusion that there had to be some sort of mistake and that if I found Yuuta on the court, asked him to explain a bit and played a bit of tennis, everything would be normal again.

Of course, if he'd been calling my home and found that I wasn't picking up—he couldn't possibly know that I was staying somewhere else—that might send a totally different message… But I was banking on him being understanding, and more in want of a good match than an argument.

"Ah, well, whatever Hikara's reasons, ore-sama will arrange for the car to take you there—" He held up a hand to stop me as I opened my mouth to protest, on behalf of reasons stated earlier. "—and drop you off a block or two away. Would you have any objection to that, Hikara?"

He smirked, knowing that of _course_ his careful planning would have no flaws. And true, there was nothing wrong with being dropped off by the car a little way away. The courts weren't quite within walking distance from the Atobe mansion anyway.

Therefore I quietly finished my milk and watched him give the driver instructions. The man gave a respectful bow and left the room.

"Change in environment," Atobe snorted quietly, as he returned to his scrambled eggs. He didn't seem to know that I'd noticed, though, and to my surprise he asked no more questions.

"Have you any idea of when you'd like to return?" he asked, though, as I was getting into the car.

"…not really. I was thinking of this being an all day thing," I told him apologetically.

"No matter," he waved a hand airily. "Call when you're done and I shall send the car over again."

Nodding, I slammed the door of the Mustang shut and mouthed goodbye at him as the sleek black vehicle backed out of the driveway.

"You're an exceptionally close friend of the young master Keigo?" the driver, Endo-san, asked as we turned onto the main road.

"I wouldn't say so. His tennis club…"

"Ah, but he doesn't have separate cars for each member," the man reminded me.

Mostly, I assumed this to be because most of Hyotei's team was also impossibly rich and so didn't need Atobe to ferry them around, and told Endo-san this.

_He doesn't have custom-made rooms for any of the team's members, though,_ I reminded myself. But then again, the Hyotei team members probably had so much cash at their disposal that if they ever lacked a place to stay the night, they could just go and buy a hotel or something.

"Phone me when you wish to return, Matsuno-sama," Endo-san instructed as we got within two blocks of the familiar street tennis courts. "And the young master Keigo has ordered that anything you need be brought to you, so don't hesitate to inform me, or any of the other staff."

Nodding in acknowledgement, I thanked the driver and slammed the car door shut.

I felt surprisingly cheerful, despite the looming uncertainty of seeing Yuuta for the first time since last well, when he did not seem at all that eager to keep in contact with me.

_I should have asked Fuji for Yuuta's phone number that day. _

No, no, I shook my head. That would've been a little too pushy. It would've looked like I was stalking him or…

_Or it would've just looked like I wanted to talk to a friend. And cared enough to do something about it. _

Heaving a sigh, I hitched my tennis bag more securely onto my shoulder. Was it because I had gotten too used to waiting for people to come to me? Or did I simply not like taking the initiative in approaching my friends, like I really, truly needed them?

Was this a sign of me caring too little about relationships-or too much?

Lost in thought, I didn't immediately recognise the figure walking in my direction. I hadn't been looking out for me anyway, given my whereabouts. I'd forgotten that he had taken up tennis.

It was only a random pedestrian that I saw, but paid no attention to, until I was stopped in my tracks when he planted himself firmly in front of me.

I jerked back to avoid collision.

"Having Atobe watch your back for so long has made you cocky, Matsuno." The boy, a year my senior, smirked. "It's like you think you can still do what you want, even when he's not around…"

Tingling.

My imagination had grown so powerful, I was sure, that there was an actual feeling of tingling on my bruises. The oldest ones. Sleeping volcanoes, the moment before eruption.

"Having your gang has made you cocky, too," I retaliated boldly. I wasn't scared. No, not any more. I was now a year older, and much, much stronger. "You think you can still do what you want, even when they're not around."

"Heh. We've been through this a million times, Matsuno. You never agreed to go out with me." There wasn't a single trace of moroseness on his face, though. The intense, wolfish leer, the steel-like muscles, flexing fluidly under his skin…it was all there.

My eyes narrowed as I stood my ground coolly. "Nor you with me, actually."

His malicious eyes widened. "That is where you're wrong, Hikara."

There is always calm before a storm. Always.

I felt it before it made contact; I knew it so well. Like the revolting cough medicine from your childhood that you've half forgotten.

When you drink it again, though, it's twice as nasty. Perhaps precisely because you've almost forgotten.

I was powerless.


	16. Chapter 15

_Ch:_ Fifteen

* * *

_|HIKARA|_

_The begrimed first year lay crumpled on the ground, her black hair in disarray and her soft gray eyes crying out injustice and hurt._

_She watched the boys retreat out of sight, having had their fun for the day. She almost didn't want to get up; what was the point? So what if the cuts and wounds healed? Fresh ones replaced them the next day. It didn't pay off, to stand and fight another day._

_It just didn't._

_The pain itself she could get used to. She was just a punch bag for them to kill time. Even they didn't take the beatings too seriously when it was just to kill time._

_It was the raging hate that she, well, hated. There was always that feeling of unbearable fury, when she saw that she could do nothing to help herself._

_Every day, she'd raise her fists._

_Every day, hope was beaten a little smaller._

_And she, being helpless, had no protector either. Not when she had actively given up that privilege. Not when she screamed for one, and yet at the same time disliked the idea of being protected._

_She knew the school gates would close soon, as the last trickle of people walked by. Walked right by. The bitterness that scalded her insides like acid bore into those happy, content and brutally ignorant people, but it hurt no one but her._

_Yes, her own feelings were starting to wound her too, on top of everything else._

_They were the only reason why she ever cried.__  
_  
"You're stubborn, Matsuno, and that doesn't go well with cockiness." The boy gave me a small kick in the ribs as I knelt on the sidewalk, clutching my stomach and trying valiantly to regain some of the breath that had been knocked out of me.

Unlike the first year girl, though, I gathered my legs under me and had leapt aside before my attacker could do anything about it.

I knew the first year girl.

I didn't like her.

I never wanted to see her again.

But there she was, glaring at me from out of Kegoto's malicious eyes.

"Listen to yourself talk, will you?" I growled, still panting. "Arrogance and a stiff neck aren't the greatest combination, Kegoto."

"You've never understood that, I think, Matsuno. Even if I_am_ a really efficient teacher." He looked over his shoulder and yelled, "Come on out, guys!"

_|YUUTA|_

It was nearly noon, I think. The sky seemed right above my head, and it was getting overwhelmingly hot. I was tired; playing against aniki, even when he wasn't giving it all he had, as always tiring. I couldn't remember a tennis game being quite so intense ever since the one I had played with Matsuno, they day we'd first met. There wasn't an inkling of the same contented exhaustion, though.

Maybe it was because I had stopped myself short, from feeling that way, determined to be dissatisfied that Matsuno wasn't there.

You do that to yourself sometimes. It is known to be called as wallowing in self-pity, I think. You simply refuse to be happy.

Which is why, well, you're not.

_Or_, I thought, perhaps affected by all the wallowing, _it could be just that there are really no tennis games like tennis games with Matsuno._

I believed that version more.

Guilt played a part in it too, I think.

"Ne, Yuuta, shall we go have lunch?" Aniki was in a fabulous mood a full smile shone on his face, even as he mopped off drop after drop of perspiration.

"Erm..." I made an indistinct noise. "Why don't you go with Sakai? I...brought sandwiches."

He opened his mouth.

"But—I didn't make that many," I rushed on, perfectly aware of how unfriendly and rude that sounded. "So, I don't think there's enough to do anything for anyone if we shared them..."

For once, I was glad that aniki was so extremely tolerant and over-understanding of me.

"Saa, that's ok, Yuuta, we don't mind." Even the blinding sunshine was nothing, nothing compared to his joyous tone. "Why don't we go to a restaurant and eat together? You could have your sandwiches there."

"Uh—bad idea," I said at once, even before I had formulated an argument. "You know shopkeepers, they don't let you bring your own food and it would be embarrassing to be told to leave..."

And as feeble as that excuse was, they accepted it. It was that acceptance that made me squirm the most inside.

I could have just told them that I wanted to stay put and wait until Matsuno showed up.

_But then aniki will just bother me about it,_ I decided, remembering the time Sakai had stayed for dinner at my house. As for Sakai herself... Would she think I was just using her to fill up my spare time, only to dismiss her the moment I was with other friends?

If she did think that way, I would be a lot of unreasonableness on her part. Didn't I already spend five afternoons a week training her in tennis? My schoolwork had been pushed unceremoniously to the evenings.

Didn't that just scream that I valued her as a friend?

Only, I valued Matsuno too...

"Yuuta, watch out!"

I looked around just in time to see something streak over the low bush a few feet behind me. The thing stumbled forwards as it landed, gasping and yet forcing itself to run on as it did.

Short black hair obscured the persons face, as he—or she—kept turning around to glance in the direction from which he or she had just appeared. Even when the frantic individual was facing me, I couldn't see the face; a white lock of bangs covered one eye.

Realization hit me with a bang and I tripped in my hurry as I caught hold of the figure. "_Matsuno_, what happened to you?"

I almost recoiled when she suddenly thrust her eyes, which were angry—or afraid, I couldn't tell—upwards to meet mine. They much resembled the eyes that had made me so nervous and unsure about her at first.

I couldn't step back, though. She had grabbed my arm.

"None of you here have seen me, got it?" she hissed in urgent ferocity, before releasing me and diving under another thicker bush at the other side of the courts.

Utterly mystified, I, aniki and Sakai turned to stare at the bush as one, but then looked away quickly.

If we _hadn't_ seen her at all, as Matsuno had insisted, gawking at her hiding place wasn't exactly the most natural thing for us to do.

_What's going on?_ I was sure the same question was in everyone else's mind. However, even before the initial shock had worn off, instinct raised our hands to grasp our rackets, and walked us all onto the courts, where we promptly began another game.

That is, until _they_ showed up.

There were five of them, all boys, with cruel, hungry expressions and acute gazes.

_Wolves_, I unconsciously made the connection._A pack of wolves._

"Hey," one of them said to me. "Seen a girl—this tall—" he demonstrated with his hand "—black and white hair and a white shirt?"

"Nope," I answered nonchalantly, surprising even myself by my own casualness. "Haven't seen anyone like that."

"Damn, where'd she run off to?" the boy growled. "Come one, guys, she must have gone that way." Gesturing, he led the other four boys past us and back onto the main road.

Once they were gone, it was like everyone's auto pilot automatically shut down. The ball dropped onto the ground, unnoticed, as we put down our rackets and made for The Bush.

"Matsuno," I called into it, feeling rather foolish. It was quite impressive, how she could hide and not reveal even an inch of herself. It was just that when I talked to the bush, it made me feel like...like I was talking to a bush.

Which is just not normal.

"You can come out now."

Uh, well...


	17. Chapter 16

_Ch:_ Sixteen

* * *

_|HIKARA|_

"Matsuno, you can come out now."

I watched Yuuta, Fuji and Sakai alertly, eyes searching for Kegoto and his gang. After reassuring myself that they would not return, I uncoiled from my flattened state and stood up, reappearing from under the leaves of a bush—twenty feet to Yuuta's right.

None of the three looked like they had been expecting this.

Which was perfectly normal, I am sure.

"Matsuno? Why—?" It was Sakai who got a grip on herself first, though she still gave alternate stares to the bush she had seen be jump into, and the one from which I had just popped up again.

I smiled at her wryly. "If those boys had doubled back and saw you all talking to that—" I pointed to the former plant "—and I had still been there, they would've found me."

The trio at once gave each other looks of varying sheepishness.

"But I don't blame you, really," I assured them. "Kegoto and the rest could easily have seen through this too, and waited long enough until I showed you my true location," I shrugged it off gently.

"Ne, Matsuno," Fuji seemed to have regained his wits too. "Who were those guys chasing you? Why were they doing that?"

I hesitated in my reply. Telling Yuuta about some of the more—interesting—parts of my life story was something that I had begun to regret, and I suspected that if I did it again, even without losing my temper, I would feel no better about the act later. "They're these guys from...Hyotei—you could tell from their clothes, couldn't you? One of them was in a uniform-with whom I had a...disagreement with."

I mentally applauded myself for being such a wonderful liar. I could lie even while telling the truth.  
Two vaguely worried, but unsuspecting faces brushed the incident off, but the third reacted vigorously, constricting brows knitting, from which you could almost see the alarmed mind churning behind.  
The first two I looked past, giving the third a significant glance.

"Ok...oh, yeah, do you want to go have lunch with us, Matsuno?" Sakai asked invitingly. "You must be hungry after all that running, I think.

My first impulse was to say that she thought right, and that food seemed like an excellent suggestion. The only reason why I didn't follow this first impulse was because—

"Matsuno eats really early," Yuuta explained to Fuji and Sakai. "She should've had lunch a long time ago, right, Matsuno?" He turned to be expectantly.

"Right," I agreed naturally. "The bit of running I did was... Well, look at it as a little after lunch exercise."

_Though I normally don't go through all the trouble of aggravating a gang just to aid digestion, of course._

"Mm...ok, to each her own, I guess," Sakai accepted reluctantly. "So I'll just go with Fuji then..."

"Ja for now," Fuji waved, with a smile much too radiant to be strictly fitting to the occasion.

"Ja." Waving back, I and Yuuta watched the two walk out of sight.

The second they had disappeared around a corner, Yuuta looked at me with a groan. "I hate it when he says 'for now'."

_|YUUTA|_  
Matsuno laughed, and if you can remember what her smile did to me, you'll understand why the illusion arose causing me to think that the world had simultaneously burst into song.

Figuratively, of course. Otherwise it would literally have wrecked havoc on everyone's eardrums.

"I do eventually have to eat, though," she said jokingly as we shared out moment of fun. "Even if I usually have my meals later than most people."

"Sure you do." I motioned for her to follow me to some nearby benches where I began rummaging through my tennis bag. "That's why I made your sandwiches too."

We sat down to eat.

Matsuno lost no time in striking up a conversation. I learned that she had been staying at Atobe Keigo's home for the last few days, which was why she had not answered my calls. I breathed a long sigh of relief. We talked about everything from aniki's abnormally extensive joy to Hyotei, not caring that our mouths were full half the time.

"So I guess you know what I meant when I told you about..." Matsuno lifted a sleeve slightly, giving me a peek of a small bruise.

"You mean that they bullied you into joining the tennis club by beating you up?" I deduced incredulously, taking a bite of bread and ham.

Matsuno smiled ruefully. "Not...not really. It wasn't exactly tennis related" She seemed to be drifting off, swallowed by memories, which she still hadn't put into words. "But the tennis club had power," she awoke abruptly to state firmly. "Even if their elimination system for their regulars is kind of harsh, they had more power than any other club in school." She said it with a sigh, like it was a mere fact. A tool. "It's one thing to attack a random freshman, but quite another to do the same to an aspiring future regular of the tennis team..." Wistfully, she swallowed her food.

Was she remembering? Was she regretting?

I really had to think about what she had said. To me, the tennis club was just the tennis club, the place where people trained with me and the place where my hopes of surpassing my brother were most alive. There, I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. For Matsuno, the club represented protection from a brutal life that she never should have had in the first place.

The subtle thoughts began seeping into my now sizable pool of wandering ponderings that now occupied my mind.

Why did everything to do with Matsuno have to be so complicated?

"I understand why you joined then," I said, at least. "I wouldn't like to be left to guys like the ones where were after you." I recalled something that had occurred to me a little while before. "They were like a pack of wolves, weren't they? Hungry wolves out for the kill."

Matsuno chewed thoughtfully. "Yes...yes, you're right...that's very...accurate"

Slightly take aback—I had meant it as a joke, originally, and hadn't expected the simile to be so evocative—I decided not to pursue the topic. All the same, I was getting more and more curious about why Matsuno seemed to react so strongly to everything I had said so far.

_Wolves._

_Wolves...?__  
_  
There was a certain familiar ring to the description that stirred up my interest...and my apprehension. Unable to find the source of this, I sifted through my past, trying to remember what had made this particular animal so significant.

_Wolves, wolves, wolves..._

But through I raked my brains, the reason eluded me. It was very tantalizing, like a date or a name that I knew by heart, and should have been able to recite in my sleep, but had suddenly escaped me.

_You're over reacting,_ I told myself sternly. _It won't kill you not to know._

Mindlessly, I crumpled my sandwich wrapper and picked up my racket. Catching sight of a sudden movement out of the corner of my eye, I understood that Matsuno had done the same. I grinned almost giddily, when the two of us simultaneously rose to our feet.

The pieces were falling back into place again, faster and faster, rearranging themselves. The notion of apologizing still existed, somewhere at the back of my mind, but as long as the apology wasn't needed, the notion could stay to fade, as far as I was concerned.

And I knew it wasn't needed.

_We_ knew it wasn't needed.

Both of us were back where we belonged, on opposite sides of a court.

"You serve first, Yuuta!" Matsuno called out.

"Here I come!" I yelled back, all thoughts of vicious canines and 'sorry' banished.

I had been right after all. There were really no tennis games like tennis games with Matsuno.


End file.
